National Education Union (NEU) members have overwhelmingly voted to accept the government’s 5.5% wage increase offer for teachers in England.
As many as 95% of respondents to a snap poll by the union voted in favour of agreeing to the proposed 2024/25 pay deal.
Around 300,000 serving teachers were asked to participate in the poll, which ran from 21-30 September, with 41% responding.
Recommended by the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), the pay offer would see the average teacher getting a wage increase of more than £2,500, taking the median 2024 to 2025 salary to more than £49,000.
Teachers’ remuneration
FE teachers’ pay a quarter less than elsewhere in education
Teachers and NHS staff could get 5.5% pay boost
Closing teachers’ pay gap will improve recruitment, study finds
Under the proposals and to help cover the wage increases, schools will be given £1.2bn of extra funding in the 2024/25 financial year, the NEU said.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “Our members should be proud of what they have achieved through a hard-fought campaign. They have accepted this year’s pay deal, but the government should be in no doubt that we see it as just a first step in the major pay correction needed.”
He also highlighted that teacher pay in England was cut by around a quarter in real terms under the Conservatives and is significantly lower than it is in Scotland, which he described as “unsustainable”.
As the poll’s findings were revealed, education secretary Bridget Phillipson began the next pay round for 2025-26, writing to the STRB to ask for its recommendations as soon as possible.
Phillipson said she was aiming to implement more timely annual pay process following delays under the last government. She told the STRB the next pay awards would be announced “as close to the start of the financial year of April as possible”.
Kebede added: “Without a major pay correction to restore the competitiveness of teacher pay, the desire to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis promised by today’s government remit letter to the STRB will come up short.
“The government must make a commitment to repairing the damage done to teacher pay under the Conservatives. This must be done in negotiations with the teacher unions. Reversing pay cuts, alongside tackling sky-high workload, is essential to ensuring that we properly value, recruit and retain teachers.”
In the UK, there are more than 500,000 teachers.
The same deal has not been offered to sixth form college teachers, although academics have the freedom to establish independent pay agreements.
While the deal has been accepted by NEU members, members of other teacher unions, including NASUWT, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and NAHT, have not voted on it.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “The government accepted the STRB’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders earlier this year. This represents an above-inflation award and the first important step towards pay restoration – and was accepted by NAHT at the time.”
ASCL also welcomed the award, adding that its members would only have been asked to formally vote if recommendations had not been accepted and if they had expressed any discontent with the offer.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
General secretary Pepe Di’Iasio said: “Going forward, it is important that the government builds further on this in order to reverse the real-terms pay cuts from previous years and address the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.”
Education sector HR roles on Personnel Today
Browse more HR jobs in education
