How many Freddos can teachers’ wages buy now, compared to 15 years ago?
According to Fife teacher Sharon Iddir, shockingly fewer!
She has made a video using the popular chocolate bar to illustrate the difference in value of the starting salary for her profession – now £28,113 for a probation teacher – between 2007 and 2022.
Watch: Freddos per hour 2007 v 2022
Thanks to @IddirS for this video explaining the impact of inflation on our pay. #freddo #PayAttention @EISUnion 🐸🐸🐸 pic.twitter.com/CXo4jrC23b
— EISFife (@EISFife) January 11, 2023
And the answer is 64 fewer per hour!
Using the price of a Freddo in 2007 of 10p and the price now of 25p, Sharon and a colleague calculated how many of the tasty Cadbury treats a teacher’s starting hourly wage would buy.
In 2007 that hourly rate was £14.60 and in 2022 it was £20.59.
So in 2007 a teacher in their probation year could buy 146 Freddos per hour and in 2022 only 82.
The hourly rate for new teachers has gone up around 40% over the 15 years – which sounds a lot until you consider that the Freddo price has rocketed by 250%.
This means that teachers now have around three-fifths of the Freddo buying power of longer-in-the-tooth colleagues when they started back then.
Sharon, 44, who works at Woodmill High School, in Dunfermline, said it is “a light-hearted but very real comparison” illustrating the impact of inflation.
In the video she says: “It doesn’t seem that much, however look at this – 64 fewer Freddos!
“What do we do? We love our chocolate!”
Sharon, who has been striking with the EIS teaching union, made the video as the teachers’ pay dispute continues.
It is based on similar comparisons circulating for nurses’ pay.
Sharon said one colleague had described it as ‘Freddonomics’. She added: “It’s kicked off everyone working out the Freddo rate for the year they started!”
Strikes on Tuesday and yesterday closed every secondary and primary school in Dundee, Angus, Fife and Perth and Kinross.
Unless a deal is struck further strikes will be held in Fife, Angus and Perth and Kinross next week and in Dundee on February 2.
