{"id":47465,"date":"2019-04-11T14:05:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T21:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=47465"},"modified":"2019-04-11T14:05:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T21:05:48","slug":"are-americas-teachers-really-underpaid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/are-americas-teachers-really-underpaid\/","title":{"rendered":"Are America\u2019s teachers really underpaid?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nIn the spring of 2018, thousands of public school teachers\u00a0walked out of their classrooms in a half-dozen states<\/a>, protesting\u00a0low salaries<\/a>,\u00a0rising class sizes<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0cuts to school budgets<\/a>\u00a0that have prompted most teachers to\u00a0buy their own classroom supplies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additional strikes followed in 2019 in\u00a0Los Angeles<\/a>,\u00a0Denver<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Oakland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While these walkouts, which enjoyed\u00a0much public support<\/a>, were about more than teacher pay,\u00a0stagnant teacher salaries<\/a>\u00a0were central issues.<\/p>\n

And political leaders have taken notice. For example, presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, has made\u00a0boosting teacher salaries<\/a>\u00a0a part of her campaign. Her\u00a0plan would allocate US$315 billion<\/a>\u00a0in federal funding over the next decade to increase pay for public school teachers and reward state and local governments for raising pay even higher, with the goal of eventually boosting teacher pay by an average of $13,500 per person. The proposal, which has been hailed as \u201cthe largest investment in teachers in American history<\/a>\u201d and\u00a0criticized as a pitch for teacher union endorsements<\/a>, would be paid for by as-yet unspecified increases in the estate tax.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

From my standpoint as an expert on educational leadership and policy and as\u00a0former assistant state superintendent for research and policy<\/a>\u00a0in the Michigan Department of Education, I see teachers as the most important resource in schools. Teachers\u2019 impact on students\u00a0persists into adulthood<\/a>. Recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers in the nation\u2019s public schools requires\u00a0good working conditions<\/a>, including competent and supportive leadership and a collegial environment. But pay matters.<\/p>\n

Teacher salaries decline over time<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Classroom teaching has never been a path to riches and, perhaps more than other professionals, teachers view their work more as a calling than as a way to make a good living. Still, teaching must compete with other occupations for talent. So how does teacher pay compare with the pay of other professions that require a similar education? By this comparison,\u00a0teacher pay has been eroding for decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0an Economic Policy Institute study<\/a>, the teacher \u201cwage penalty\u201d \u2013 how much less teachers make than comparable workers \u2013 grew from 5.5% in 1979 to a record 18.7% in 2017.<\/p>\n

Teacher wage gaps vary widely from state to state, but\u00a0in no state does teacher pay equal or exceed<\/a>\u00a0pay for other college graduates. And it\u2019s no coincidence that the four states with the largest gaps \u2013 Arizona, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Colorado \u2013 saw teacher protests in 2018.<\/p>\n

In some states, teacher salaries have been so low that teachers have\u00a0qualified for public assistance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fair comparisons?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

How can teachers\u2019 earnings be compared to those of non-teachers when teachers get summers off? The answer: Compare weekly wages. For example, a public school teacher in the U.S. with a bachelor\u2019s degree\u00a0earned an average of $980 per week<\/a>\u00a0between 2013 and 2017, while a comparable non-teaching college graduate averaged $1,326.<\/p>\n

Some may argue that teachers, on average, work fewer hours per week than other college graduates. However, a leading teachers\u2019 union says that teachers often\u00a0work longer<\/a>\u00a0than their contracted work day.<\/p>\n

What about teacher benefits? Instead of pay raises, are school districts giving their teachers generous benefit packages? No. While teacher benefits have accounted for a rising share of their total compensation as salaries have stalled and constitute a bigger share as compared with other professionals, this \u201cbenefit advantage\u201d\u00a0only partially offsets the teacher wage penalty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even teacher pension plans, often criticized as overly generous and costly to taxpayers, are now found to be\u00a0inadequate in many states<\/a>. In Massachusetts, for instance, teacher contributions to pensions plans will actually\u00a0exceed their benefits<\/a>\u00a0no matter how long they stay in teaching.<\/p>\n

In 39 states, the average teacher salary\u00a0declined<\/a>\u00a02010 and 2016 when you take inflation into account. And these declines were not the result of teacher turnover, with retiring and relatively well-paid baby boomers being replaced by entry-level millennials. A 2018 Brookings study found that teachers were\u00a0more qualified in 2016 than in 2007<\/a>. Teachers were older and more educated, with greater proportions holding master\u2019s and doctoral degrees, the Brookings study found.<\/p>\n

The pay gap gives rise to\u00a0teacher shortages<\/a>. These shortages do not show up as actual vacancies or empty classrooms. Rather, they appear as underqualified teachers \u2013 that is, more positions filled by teachers lacking full credentials and holding only temporary or \u201cemergency\u201d licenses. Shortages in math and science have been a\u00a0chronic problem<\/a>\u00a0for public schools, as non-teaching options have been much more lucrative for candidates in these fields.<\/p>\n

Solving the teacher shortage problem, which\u00a0afflicts every state<\/a>\u00a0to varying degrees, will require more than boosting teacher pay across the board. It will also take improving teachers\u2019 working conditions, giving them more manageable class sizes and adding more support staff, such as psychologists, social workers, nurses and librarians. It will also take safe, well-maintained facilities and skilled principals who create the kind of school environments that make teachers want to stay.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Michael Addonizio is Professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Wayne State University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the spring of 2018, thousands of public school teachers\u00a0walked out of their classrooms in a half-dozen states, protesting\u00a0low salaries,\u00a0rising class sizes\u00a0and\u00a0cuts to school budgets\u00a0that have prompted most teachers to\u00a0buy their own classroom supplies. Additional strikes followed in 2019 in\u00a0Los Angeles,\u00a0Denver\u00a0and\u00a0Oakland. While these walkouts, which enjoyed\u00a0much public support, were about more than teacher pay,\u00a0stagnant teacher […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":47466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15645],"tags":[295206],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-47465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-teachers-salaries"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAre America\u2019s teachers really underpaid? - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/are-americas-teachers-really-underpaid\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are America\u2019s teachers really underpaid? - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the spring of 2018, thousands of public school teachers\u00a0walked out of their classrooms in a half-dozen states, protesting\u00a0low salaries,\u00a0rising class sizes\u00a0and\u00a0cuts to school budgets\u00a0that have prompted most teachers to\u00a0buy their own classroom supplies. Additional strikes followed in 2019 in\u00a0Los Angeles,\u00a0Denver\u00a0and\u00a0Oakland. 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