Salaries

[finleysmaid]

OK i need to do an urgent pay review for the staff. Lots struggling due to rise in costs. Please could anyone share rates of pay for 

Assistant

Deputy

Manager

After school club supervisor

After school club assistant

Many thanks in advance!

[Dennie]

Sorry to see there are no replies yet, so just adding my support.  Our committee are also dealing with the same issue at the moment, while grappling with rising costs.  Current level 3s will be below minimum wage come April so will need an increase, and we also need some recommendations for all staff from unqualified up to manager. We would value some suggestions if anyone is willing to share.  I have asked similar questions via the forum in the past and I'm aware it is a recurring issue in our sector, as there is no formal pay structure.

[Dennie]

I also wanted to add that our committee are looking to recruit a new manager and are finding it difficult to assess what level of pay they should offer for the role, which will also involve all the admin.  Our setting is a community group, open 38 weeks a year, in line with the school terms.  Many of the roles advertised are for day care settings open all year round, so it is difficult to compare like with like.  Are there any members here with a similar dilemma?

Many thanks and apologies for jumping on your topic Finleysmaid.  The forum seems so quiet these days.

[louby loo]

I'm afraid to say it's min wage here 🙁, 50p extra for deputy and £1.00 for manager.   I will say our staff do have it quite easy through, we are a not for profit group and run well over ratio at all times. I could lose staff and pay more (2 out of 5 per day)- but they'd have a far harder workload each day.

We haven't had a rent increase for almost 6 years - so I fully understand that that needs to go up due to rising costs of electricity any time now.

Worrying times all around.

[zigzag]

Manager £11.75

Deputy £9.71

level 2 Assistant £8.91

level 4 Assistant £9.20

I am aware that as manager I am on a good rate of pay but I have been there for 19 years and do EVERYTHING.

[louby loo]

On 11/03/2022 at 07:52, zigzag said:

Manager £11.75

Deputy £9.71

level 2 Assistant £8.91

level 4 Assistant £9.20

I am aware that as manager I am on a good rate of pay but I have been there for 19 years and do EVERYTHING.

I must admit although my manger(me) rate is lower than yours I do pay myself for all the work I do at home too.

[finleysmaid]

Thanks for the responses. Since our local foodstores are paying 10.50 an hour round here we need to be competitive. our lowest rate currently is 9.50 per hour for a level 3 assistant (i don't employ anyone with less!) i have suggested we need to increase all pay roles by a £1 an hour. We are putting up paid fees but our rent has also gone up. Utilities are rising in November, but if i don't do something radical we will have no staff! people travel to get to us they can't afford the petrol and 2 of them have other jobs to pay the bills. My finance trustees is currently looking at a pay scale so we will see....lets hope she doesn't ask me for the information above though or we may all be getting sacked! Wages should equal about 70% of income and ours are currently at 60 due to lack of pay reviews over the last few years....time to get on it! 

Zig zag i admire you...no way i could live for that manager salary!😔

Indeed have average salary scales but tricky as it doesn't spilt between 38 and 47/48 weeks

[Mouseketeer]

We are £15+, £11+, £9 L3 (I’m hoping the committee will agree to a bit above NMW for L3 with maybe another bit for long service), I don’t think it’s right that  an experienced L3 is on the same rate as a newly qualified with no experience, in my setting the difference in taking responsibility/using initiative etc is vast and feel that needs recognition.

[louby loo]

Our issue is- we have very few 'fee paying' customers 🙁

[Mouseketeer]

On 12/03/2022 at 10:48, louby loo said:

Our issue is- we have very few 'fee paying' customers 🙁

We don’t either, most of our 2’s are funded (I’m not sure how with some of them 🤔), we are putting up fees for the first time in 3 years from April though, we do charge a small consumable charge for every hour we offer which helps, I try not to go over one staff’s worth of 2 yr olds per session as that’s where you lose the money.
 

 

[louby loo]

On 12/03/2022 at 12:58, Mouseketeer said:

We don’t either, most of our 2’s are funded (I’m not sure how with some of them 🤔),

Snap!   Lets just say we have a lot of 'single' on paper  parents 😬

....and don't get me started on the Food voucher schemes.

[Mouseketeer]

On 13/03/2022 at 10:08, louby loo said:

Snap!   Lets just say we have a lot of 'single' on paper  parents 😬

....and don't get me started on the Food voucher schemes.

Yes! convenient isn’t it! And then there are those who know how to play the game, they are 2 yr funded then bam they are entitled to 30 hrs 🤷‍♀️
 

…..and I’m with you on the vouchers, Waitrose? M&S? 

[MilborneLadybirds]

I've read this thread with interest as we are about to advertise for a Deputy Leader. I have always been open to emplying people who wish to train but frequently find they then go onto other employment that pays better or offers more hours.

As leader I negotiated a salary rather than be paid hourly so not sure how to compare my rate of pay with others. Last year the Trustees changed pay rates to include holiday pay which i have found very confusing. Their reasoning was that it made us more attractive to applicants. My feeling is it is misleading and prefer the previous method of pay. 

Does anyone else have holiday pay included in rate of pay?

[finleysmaid]

Yes we do a version of rolled up pay.

You have to be careful that you don't end up paying below minimum wage if you do it....BUT it means everyone gets paid about the same every month...unlike pro rata where you may not get paid at all.in holidays

[louby loo]

We do too, staff sign a disclaimer saying that's how they want to be paid though - and no one is forced to be paid that way.

I wouldn't do it that way for a long time, then Covid hit and it just seemed easier for everyone. (especially me working out monthly wages)

You do need to be careful about having unpaid time off! 

[sunnyday]

Retired now - but no, I always kept holiday pay separate 

[finleysmaid]

On 03/04/2022 at 21:18, sunnyday said:

Retired now - but no, I always kept holiday pay separate 

so did you pay full pay for 38 weeks and holiday pay for 5 weeks or for the pro rata'd number of weeks?

[louby loo]

On 04/04/2022 at 10:07, finleysmaid said:

so did you pay full pay for 38 weeks and holiday pay for 5 weeks or for the pro rata'd number of weeks?

I used to pay one week Christmas, one week Easter and the remainder in August - be be honest it didn't really work out a lot different to equal payments over the year.   I'm a firm believer that my staff are fully grown adults that should be in charge of their own finances, and it wasn't up to me to arrange their pay to suit their DD/SO's for Sky payments etc!  

 HOWEVER covid cracked me - when we closed down march 20 I made a plan so they all got paid (no furlough available for us).  I've stuck with it now as it actually  makes my life easier.   They get the full workings out for the year on a sheet which they sign (my job this week), this includes the deductions rate if they are off, overtime obviously paid at hourly rate.   I do allow time off for holidays- so if they have already booked I can factor this in if they want.

[sunnyday]

On 04/04/2022 at 10:07, finleysmaid said:

so did you pay full pay for 38 weeks and holiday pay for 5 weeks or for the pro rata'd number of weeks?

Yes - it was the easiest way for me to keep 'straight' and suited staff just fine...

[Cait]

I worked out on spreadsheets how many hours they worked across the year, how many Tuesday afternoons etc and continued that across their holiday entitlement weeks.  Made a total of how many hours that equated to and divided it by 12, that gave them the same salary across the year and made it easier for me to sort out tax etc.   The sheet was given to staff for them to check my working out and they signed it and gave me a copy back.   They knew that if they took unpaid leave for any reason, then those hours would be deducted from the numbers going forward, so their total monthly would be slightly reduced, rather than take a hit in one month - they could choose that option though, if they preferred that.