"No one will ever pay you what you're worth. They'll only ever pay you what they think you're worth, and you control their thinking. Clearly defining and communicating your value are essential to being paid well for your excellence."
This TEDTalks has struck a cord inside me. Clearly defining my value has taken many years, and was challenged again when I entered into teaching. But working for the government will always result in not being paid your value. Today I attended a NZEI Union Meeting where primary school teachers from the Far North discussed and voted on whether to accept the ministry's proposal or to take further action. The ministry were offering a 2% pay increase for the next 3 years. 2%. 2% of my fortnightly salary is $14. That's an extra $7 per week that the ministry are offering. Can you imagine how offended I felt when I did my calculations! I am worth so much more than the government are paying me, I can only imagine what experienced educators are worth!
This brings me back to the multiple times I've been upset or bothered about the number on my payslip. Someone I know is studying to receive their certificate in Early Childhood Education. They run a home-based daycare and have 3 children from 9am to 3pm, Monday to Thursday. This person gets paid more than I do. I studied for five years and received a degree, as well as a post-graduate diploma on top of that. I'm a qualified teacher who had up to 29 students last year, and 26 this year (so far). Novopay says I work 25 hours per week but any educator knows that's rubbish, and that we'd be looking towards 60 plus. The amount of stress, meetings, paper work, etc. that takes away from teaching time, makes a woman (or man) question: why? How is this worth it?
People say, "oh you shouldn't have gone into teaching if you wanted to be rich" or "oh you don't go into teaching for the money". It's not about the money, it's about matching the money to the value.
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