20 years teaching in Independent school-Search salary projec

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splendid
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 11:39 am

20 years teaching in Independent school-Search salary projec

Post by splendid »

I have 20 years experience, based on the salary projection on Search, is it possible to negotiate for higher salary than the 8+ year experience example posted? I should mention, I will have at least one dependent.
vandsmith
Posts: 348
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2014 12:16 am

Re: 20 years teaching in Independent school-Search salary pr

Post by vandsmith »

some schools will have a max step you can enter on, which might be higher than that figure listed. as for negotiation, i guess it would depend on the school and how rare your position/credentials are...

v.
Nomads
Posts: 152
Joined: Mon Nov 04, 2013 2:08 pm

Re: 20 years teaching in Independent school-Search salary pr

Post by Nomads »

Splendid,

It is possible with some schools, but few, if any, of the top schools will exceed their maximum entry step. It would be too controversial with existing staff who came in on that step. The max entry step varies from school to school, from 5 up to 16 or so.
wrldtrvlr123
Posts: 1173
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
Location: Japan

Re: 20 years teaching in Independent school-Search salary pr

Post by wrldtrvlr123 »

Generally speaking, the better the school, the least likely they are to negotiate about anything. That being said, I suppose some schools might be willing to sweeten the pot in some relatively minor way (e.g. waiving some type of tuition/fee for dependents, covering a utility that they usually don't, more settling in money, treating more of your salary as housing to save taxes, etc). The better schools are certainly less likely to negotiate salary scale or salary cap. As someone else posted, the 8 years is just a Search thing so that candidates can compare apples to apples (in theory at least) and some schools will credit more or less than that.

All that being said, if you teach in a high needs area (not of the equestrian or left-handed bag-piper type) and are the perfect candidate I suppose it's possible that a school might do something more substantial to seal the deal and lock you down. Be warned though that the better the school, the more likely they might take offense with a blatant financial play as some of them take themselves and their status way too seriously.
senator
Posts: 384
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:53 am

Re: 20 years teaching in Independent school-Search salary pr

Post by senator »

I taught IB HL Math and a little physics and NOBODY was ever was willing to negotiate salary.

It makes me laugh when teachers,of, say, English or middle school social studies, think they are so special that they can leverage their "uniqueness" into additional benefits, while the rest of us mere mortals have to accept what the school offers.

I am assuming that this relatively new idea is being put forth by younger teachers. You know, those who were brought up being told every day that everything they did was wonderful and magical and they deserved only good things.
PsyGuy
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Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

ISs typically use a grid composed of experience years on one axis and education level on another axis. Take your years of experience and your degree (credential) and find the cell they intercept and thats your salary. SA chooses two reference points on those scale BA +4 and MA +8 so that ITs can compare relative salaries. It doesnt mean much, you can have either of those two exact point and not be offered the quoted salary.

Schools generally have two approaches to compensation either they have a 1) Public/Open pay scale/salary ladder, etc. In which case the school determines the contributing factors (usually years of experience and degree level) and your salary is what ever that box says. There can be adjustments/supplements for extra duty assignments, etc. The point of this scale is that everyone with a certain category makes the same. Its "equal" if not fair (fair in my opinion is actually pretty subjective). This is a lot like the "no hassle" car dealership. The price is clearly published and thats just "how much it is".
In the second type 2): Negotiated/Closed (Private tends to be avoided, but still used) you negotiate or discuss a compensation package. This can take several forms in itself, the two most common are the face to face negotiation, usually over the phone or Skype where you politely try to sell your value to the head, and they try to get you as cheaply as possible. The second most common type is the "letter" type which either occurs with the head, or more often with HR, and involves a series of email exchanges. Where they make an initial offer, you counter offer, they "check with the boss" then they counteroffer, and back an forth until you stop seeing progress/change in the offers happening. This experience is a lot more like the traditional "used car" buy experience, where your essentially haggling.
In my experience the open/public approach is the most popular, for two reasons (and different situations). The better schools are interested in fairness, equality and simplicity, its makes payroll easier (especially at bigger schools, which also tend to be the better schools). The second reason, is in schools that really dont care about the quality of their teachers, and they just want the cheapest body in the classroom they can get. They know they pay peanuts, and they dont really care, because anyone whos a decent teacher wouldnt teach there anyway, and likely has better offers.
The Closed/negotiated salary scale is usually found at third tier schools all over the globe, who are usually young schools, have small enrollments, or constant turn around in faculty. For them minimizing costs is very important, as many teachers simply dont stay longer then their initial two year contract before moving on, so investing in faculty is a lost cause for them. Lastly, they just have more of a "paycheck to paycheck" mentality, they dont know what their enrollment will be in the future and with a small school it doesnt take much change in enrollment before they are over budget. For them a good teacher at less cost is better then a great teacher who is more expensive. Many recruiters wil just shrug and restate the offer, take it or leave it, some ISs will pull their offer at the suggestion that its not enough.

In general No you cant negotiate salary, many quality ISs follow their salary scale its whats been approved by ownership. The other issue is that negotiating or being open to negotiation isnt in the interests of the IS. Many recruiters will just bulk at direct requests or pushes for more coin because its what you want or what you got before.
What you can do is negotiate steps on the scale. You do this by giving the recruiter a pitch why some skills, experience or some attribute is worth step on the scale. Maybe you dont have a masters but you have an extra year of grad study in education you can negotiate that thats worth an extra year of step. Maybe the IS is a Google Education school and you have a lot of experience and maybe some certifications in that, you can argue its worth a step or combined with something else is worth a step. You can argue non teaching experience is relevant to the position. Put everything together in one pitch and suggest X step, dont say X coin, but X step.
The other option if you cant negotiate the scale there is usually some flexibility in the OSH package, getting a shopping allowance instead of a shipping allowance, maybe an extra flight if your single, or an extra place for another dependent.

In your case you are going to run into several other problems:

1) Most ISs have a salary cap, and if you are coming from an independent DS you will take a pay cut in IE at anywhere except an Elite tier IS. ISs generally set their cap between 5 and 10 years.

2) Many ISs max out their main salary scale at 20 years or less. Some ISs have a senior IT scale, but your already at the max at many ISs with 20 years and above it at other ISs with only 10 year scales.

3) Some ISs are starting to give one year of step for every 2 years of service, and only giving partial step for less than full loads.

Dont be hesitant to voice your position. This is "THE" time to negotiate your compensation package. The bargaining table is where you ask for and get what you want. Once the contract is signed, it would be poor form, unprofessional, and even offensive to come back and attempt to negotiate for additional compensation again (sometimes this can be done, for instance if airfare dramatically spikes, or in regard to housing your family size increases for instance).
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