Teachers work longer hours - and have seen a sharper drop in pay - than police officers and nurses, a new study suggests.
And teachers are the least satisfied out of the three professions with the amount of leisure time they have, the research says.
The findings come amid concerns about teacher workload and staff shortages. This month, the Education Secretary Damian Hinds pledged to cut teacher workload to improve staff retention.
The study, by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that teachers worked 50 hours a week during term time in 2015/16, compared with 44 for police officers and 39 for nurses.
Taking into account school holidays - and how much teachers may work during these breaks - teachers and police staff work a comparable number of hours annually.
The study notes that all public sector workers have faced a pay freeze or a cap on wage increases since 2010, which has eroded real-terms pay for all three professions.
It says that in 2015/16, police officers had the highest annual average earnings, followed by teachers and then nurses.
But it calculates that taking into account average hours worked each year, teachers have an average hourly pay rate of £17.70 - about the same rate as nurses, but lower than police officers' real average hourly pay, which stands at £18.80.
The study also estimates that teachers' real average hourly pay has dropped by about 15 per cent since 2009/10, while for nurses it has dropped by about 4 per cent, and for police officers about 11 per cent.
