Teachers’ equity sensitivity to and concerns about the single spine salary structure

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the equity sensitivity and concerns of teachers about the single spine salary. Questionnaires comprising the conventional Equity Sensitivity Instrument and some other typical items on teacher concerns about the single spine salary structure were administered to 129 basic school student teachers of the Institute of Educational Development and Extension (IEDE) at the Cape Coast study centre in the Cape Coast metropolis. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The study found that teachers were mainly equity sensitive and require fair and equitable treatment on the single spine salary structure. Yet their equity sensitivity was independent of their gender, qualification or rank. Teachers’ concern was fundamentally three-fold: (i) the delay in getting their turn on the implementation of the single salary; (ii) their lack of knowledge of the amount they would receive and what other workers were collecting under the new salary scheme; and (iii) the feeling that GNAT failed to bargain well for them; and the ability of the new salary structure to motivate them to work better. It has been, accordingly, recommended that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission be actually fair in principle and in deed. The Commission should expedite the implementation of the salary such that teachers would see and experience the relative advantage the new salary scheme brings. The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) should give periodic report to teachers on the progress of the negotiation of the salary of teachers with the Fair Wages Commission.