Scottish headteachers tend to be paid more than the average earned by their counterparts in countries such as Finland, New Zealand and France - but they lag behind heads in England, new figures show.
Research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which includes 38 member states, shows that the average salary earned by Scottish secondary heads in 2020-21 was $82,718 (currently around £73,000). However, in England that figure was 48 per cent higher at $122,697 (approx £108,000).
According to the figures, Scottish primary headteachers also earn less on average than their English counterparts - like Scottish secondary heads, their average actual earnings are put at $82,718 (around £73,000). The average actual pay of English primary heads was put at $86,874 (around £76,000).
When it comes to the maximum amount it is possible for headteachers to earn, Scotland again lags behind England.
South of the border headteachers can earn up to $147,755 (around £130,000) but in Scotland the maximum take-home pay for headteachers is put at $123,180 (approx £108,000). Although the minimum salary a head could earn is higher in Scotland ($63,838 or approx £56,000) than in England ($60,962 or approx £54,000).
Differences in headteacher pay highlighted by OECD
The figures are based on salaries from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021 and differ from official salary scales because - in order to compare headteacher and teacher pay in different countries - salaries are converted into dollars using “purchasing power parities”, which attempt to take account of the different price levels between countries.
The report says that in the UK “the subnational variation in actual salaries was greater for school heads than for teachers”.
It adds: “For example, at the upper secondary level, teachers’ salaries in the United Kingdom ranged from $49,585 in Wales to $55,390 in Northern Ireland, a difference of 12 per cent or $5,805. In comparison, school heads’ salaries ranged from $82,718 in Scotland to $122,697 in England, a difference of 48 per cent or $39,979.”
Scottish headteachers have long argued that the toolkit used to determine school leader salaries - which focuses heavily on school rolls - needs to be revised. They say that because a depute head in a large school can earn as much as the headteacher of a small school, there is a lack of incentive to become a school leader, given the extra responsibility that entails.
The Scottish government recently set up a headteacher recruitment and retention working group to develop an action plan to help improve the recruitment and retention of headteachers in Scotland.
Scottish secondary headteachers are not alone in earning less on average than English heads; of all the countries that took part in the survey, school leaders in England were among the best paid.
Overall, Scottish heads were earning more than the OECD average and the EU22 average, except in upper secondary.
The EU22 countries are the 22 countries that are members of both the European Union and the OECD. They are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
For example, the average actual salary of lower secondary headteachers in the OECD was found to be $76,831 (around £68,000); the average salary among the EU22 was $72,283 (£64,000); while the average actual pay of Scottish heads was put at $82,718. However, the OECD average actual pay for upper secondary headteachers was $83,022 (around £73,000).
The report also finds that Scottish secondary headteachers are required to work less hours than those in the vast majority of OECD countries (1,365 hours per year, compared with the OECD average of 1,608). It says that the variation in working hours between countries can be down to the fact that in some countries teachers and headteachers are required to work during the school holidays.
The report states: “In about two-thirds of the countries with available data, the statutory working time of school heads includes working during students’ school holidays. The amount worked during school holidays ranges from about one week in Austria, Scotland...and the Netherlands (at the request of the school heads’ employers) to 10 weeks in Turkey.”
The figures are contained in the OECD report Education at a Glance 2022, which was published yesterday and provides comparable national statistics measuring the state of education worldwide.
Education at a Glance 2022 also reports on teacher salaries and says that teachers in lower secondary in Scotland earn less than the OECD average but more than the EU22 average - on average, Scottish lower secondary teachers earned $49,612 (around £44,000), with the OECD average at $50,026.
In Scotland, the report says, starting salaries for teachers are higher than the earnings of the most recent graduates, but they are lower than the earnings of graduates who completed their programmes three to five years earlier.
It finds “substantial variation” between countries in terms of the time needed to progress to the top of the teacher pay scale. This ranges from just four years in Scotland to 42 years in Hungary, says the report.
The report also looks at the amount of time teachers spend in front of classes and finds that on average, in upper secondary, teachers spend 43 per cent of their time in front of classes but in Scotland that figure rises to 63 per cent. It is lowest in Japan, Norway and Turkey, where teachers spend 33 per cent of their time or less teaching.
Scottish teachers in primary and secondary schools currently spend 855 hours a year teaching. Tes Scotland reported on these figures in full when last year’s survey was published. The figures revealed that Scottish teachers will still spend more time in front of classes on average than their European counterparts, even if the Scottish government delivers its promise to cut class-contact time.
