What people earn Children's views on payment for different jobs By Kim Tullar age 11

One of Tony Blair's not so famous quotes, “I wish I was paid a footballer’s salary”

What I am trying to find out… …what children think about payment for different jobs.

My Method I devised a questionnaire to find out children's views. I handed the questionnaires out to a year 5/6 class and a year 3/4 class.

Some findings Question 2 asked children to select the highest and the lowest paid jobs from a list. Y3/4 did not seem to realise which jobs were paid the most. Y5/6 knew more about it.

Question 3 Do you think different jobs should be paid the same and why? Most people in both year groups said no.

Reasons given included The main reason given by children in both year groups was ‘Harder or difficult jobs should be paid more’. About 10% of each class said ‘Everyone should earn the same amount of money’.

About 20% of year 3/4 said that ‘Jobs with longer hours should be paid more’.

Question 4 Average wages for the following jobs are: A Premier League footballer £1.5 million a year A doctor £80,000 a year A school cook £12,000 a year Do you think this is fair?

Yes No Y5/ Y3/

Question 6 If you could decide how much different jobs were paid which of the following things do you think deserve the most money? Being a celebrity Helping others Need to pass lots of exams for the job Doing a dangerous job Doing a dirty job

These are the responses

Question 7 Which of the following jobs is the most important for your town and which the least? Footballers Doctors Teachers Pop stars Rubbish Collectors

Both years agreed that doctors are the most important to the town. Year 3/4 thought teachers were nearly as important. Both years agreed that footballers and pop stars were the least important to the town.

Question 8 Which of the following jobs is the most important to you and which the least? The responses were basically the same as in the last question.

My conclusion Most children seemed to think that jobs that helped others or difficult jobs should be paid the most and entertainment jobs should be paid less than they are.

Afterthoughts If I had the opportunity, I would like 16 year olds and adults to respond to my Questionnaire.

References news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/ stm The Times Thursday May 25th 2006