TEACHERS in Wales will get a below inflation pay rise this year, the Welsh government has announced.

Salaries will rise by five per cent in the first year and could go up by 3.5 per cent in the second.

Education Minister Jeremy Miles said he was limited in how far he could go in raising pay, but unions have already responded with talk of ballots over industrial action.

There are 26,600 teachers in Wales, with the average classroom pay £39,009.

Accepting the recommendations of an independent pay review body “in principle,” Mr Miles agreed that salaries should rise by five per cent from September.

That will put starting salaries for new teachers of £28,866.

The salaries of more experienced classroom teachers will rise to £44,450.

NEU Cymru, said it will hold a preliminary ballot for industrial action in the autumn, “given this very poor pay proposal”.

David Evans, the union’s Wales secretary, said the union “simply cannot allow these attacks on our members’ pay and their standards of living to continue”, and added if there was no movement on the pay rise by September it “will have no hesitation in recommending that our members take action”.

Another union, NASUWT, has already said it would ballot for industrial action if teachers do not receive a 12 per cent pay award.

NAHT Cymru director Laura Doel said a five per cent rise was a “pay cut” that does “nothing to address the decade of cuts to salaries”.

Plaid Cymru’s Heledd Fychan urged the Welsh government “to rethink and at the very least offer public sector pay rises in line with inflation while easing working conditions and workloads for teachers”.