School pay evidence that principal and board can both trust

Who it is for

Principals, bursars, board chairs and owners of upper-tier UAE schools. It launches with British-curriculum schools in the upper fee band, followed by IB, then American and CBSE. It is independent and run by 10k.

The trust gap

Boards are used to evidence; they want to see the numbers before approving a pay increase. Principals often know they are losing good teachers, or struggling to recruit, but can offer only exit conversations and word of mouth. That gap makes pay conversations slower and harder than they should be.

A shared benchmark closes it: principal and board look at the same evidence and can move to the decision. It also cuts both ways. The data can show where your pay is behind, and just as clearly where it is fine or above market.

Why generic salary data fails schools

• Sector averages hide segments. A premium British school and a lower-fee school do not compete for the same teachers.
• Reward differs by fee point and curriculum. Pay and packages follow the school’s market position.
• Teacher pay follows experience. A single average per job title says little.
• Packages matter. Housing, medical and family benefits can be as significant as salary.

Comparing like with like

• Curriculum, starting with British upper fee band.
• Fee band, anchored on the Year 6 fee or equivalent and verified against KHDA and ADEK published information.
• Location, with Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Northern Emirates cuts.
• Experience, so teacher pay is compared at each stage of the career.

A segment is published only when enough schools are in it.

What members receive

Each member receives a report of around 16 pages:

• A board summary: your position by role group, three headline messages and the cost to move.
• Teacher pay against the market band, by years of experience.
• Senior leadership and support roles, by post, phase and scope.
• Responsibility and shortage allowances.
• The wider package: housing, medical and family policy, expressed in money terms.
• A UK reference: your pay curve against the England teacher pay scale.

It comes as a PDF, an editable board page and an Excel workbook of aggregates only. Every exhibit shows its sample size.

It is designed to settle simple questions: Are we behind? Is a rival offering more? Is the issue pay or package? What would it cost to close the gap? Are we overpaying anywhere?

How it works

1. Submit an employee extract, or your pay scale with headcount. No names or identifiers.
2. Validate. 10k checks the data and puts packages on one basis. The core measure is fixed annual cash; other components are benchmarked separately.
3. Report. Results are aggregated by segment, and thin cells are withheld.
4. Decide. You take the evidence to your board, with expert support from 10k.

Safeguards

• At least five schools sit behind any published figure, and no school accounts for more than 30% of it.
• Published data is at least three months old, and no pay intentions are exchanged.
• A written competition-law protocol, reviewed by counsel before launch.
• Built to the UAE PDPL and aligned with GDPR, KSA and Qatar rules.
• Hosted in the UAE: no employee data leaves the country.

Independence

10k owns and runs the benchmark and decides its method and what is published. Founding members hold no equity; they sit on an advisory council, made up mostly of school leaders, which advises on priorities. Benchmark data is firewalled from our consulting work, and no school ever sees another school’s data.

Membership

The full price is AED 50,000 per school per year. Significant discounts are available for founding members and for multi-year agreements, and we are happy to talk through what would apply to your school.

Founding membership includes:

• the first two editions of the member report;
• a seat on the advisory council;
• eight hours of expert support;
• your rate locked for two renewals.

Schools that commission an organisation maturity audit can join the benchmark free of charge.