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New research from the Pre-school Learning Alliance and Nursery World has discovered that the average hourly wage for early years professionals is less than half the median hourly wage of educational professionals.

 

The average wage of qualified teaching and educational professionals sits at £21.97 per hour, but the survey showed that early years professional earn, on average, £10.01 per hour.

 

The ‘Early Years Pay and Conditions Survey 2016’ also threw up a number of other interesting results, particularly that there is a stagnation in wages across the sector which have increased very little since 2013.

 

The DfE’s most recent early years provider survey (2013) calculated hourly staff wages at £11.20 and £10.80 for full day care and sessional provision respectively; supervisory roles at £8.40/£8.70, and other roles at £6.80/£7.30 respectively.

 

These figures are similar to those reported by the ‘Early Years Pay and Conditions Survey 2016’, despite the recent increase in the national minimum wage from £6.31 to £6.70, and the introduction of the national living wage (£7.20 per hour).

 

Neil Leitch, chief executive at the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said that he was not surprised by the results given that funding for the sector has failed to reflect rising business costs and increases in minimum wages.

 

“Quality early years provision is only possible with a quality early years workforce – but unless providers can afford to pay their staff an attractive wage, we are increasingly likely to see talented practitioner choosing to leave the early years,” he said.

 

“Add to this the continued impact of the Level 3 GCSE requirements on recruitment level in the sector and it’s clear that business owners are really going to struggle going forward unless something changes.”

 

Keep an eye for the November/December 2016 issue of Under 5 for full details of the survey results.