The Economic Policy Institute [EPI] recently published an important comprehensive study, The Teaching Penalty: Teacher Pay Losing Ground.
As the title suggests, this study shows that there is a long run decline in teacher pay in the United States. The wave of teacher unionization of the 1960s and early 1970s brought with it a substantial increase in teacher pay, but for the last 25 years, teachers have been losing ground relative to other professions with similar levels of education. Moreover, the growth in the gap between teaching and other educated professions has been particularly dramatic for women and for those who make teaching a life time career.
For New York City public school teachers, there are two important lessons that can be gleaned from this report. First, the significant pay increases in New York City over the last three contracts — a minimum of 43% for all teachers, and a maximum salary that will break the $100,000 ceiling in May — are all the more significant, given that they run directly against the grain of the national trends. Second, for these increases to be sustained here in NYC and spread throughout K-12 education, it will be crucial to build the power of teacher unions across the nation. No teacher union local is an island. The strategic imperative of organizing the charter school sector grows with each day.
Raising teacher compensation is not simply a matter of concern for teachers. It is a critical component in any strategy to improve the quality of American education. No effort in this vein will succeed if schools can not recruit and retain a higher quality teacher workforce. Policies that solely focus on rearranging the distribution of the current compensation package, such as individual merit pay, will not be effective because they do not address the teacher compensation disadvantage in the labor market.
The specific findings of The Teaching Penalty include:
- In 2006, American public school teachers earned 15% lower weekly earnings than comparable workers, a 1% growth in a gap EPI found in an earlier study on teacher pay published in 2003. The teacher disadvantage grew by 13.4 percentage points between 1979 and 2006, with most of the erosion (9.0 percentage points) occurring in the last decade.
- Recent trends represent only a small part of a long-run decline in the relative pay of teachers. The report shows that the pay gap between female public school teachers and comparably educated women — for whom the labor market dramatically changed over the 1960-2000 period — grew by nearly 28 percentage points, from a relative wage advantage of 14.7% in 1960, to a pay disadvantage of13.2% in 2000. Among all public school teachers the relative wage disadvantage grew almost 20 percentage points over the 1960-2000 period.
- An analysis of the weekly earnings of occupations comparable to K-12 teachers confirms the teacher disadvantage in weekly earnings and the substantial erosion of teacher relative pay over the last 10 years. Teachers’ weekly wages were nearly on par with those paid in comparable occupations in 1996 but are now 14.3%, or $154, below that of comparable occupations.
- Improvements in the non-wage benefits of K-12 teachers partially offsets these wage differences, such that the weekly compensation disadvantage facing teachers in 2006 is about 12%, about 3 percentage points less than the 15% weekly wage disadvantage.
- In a disturbing trend, the greatest gap is appearing for those who make teaching a life time career. After disaggregating trends in relative compensation through the 1990s by age, nearly all of the increase in the weekly earnings gap between teachers and comparably educated and experienced workers occurred among mid- and senior level teachers. Early-career teachers (age 25-34) experience roughly the same wage disadvantage today as in 1990 (about 12%).
In recent years, there has been a great deal of conservative and neo-liberal claims that teachers are overpaid and/or overcompensated, once pensions and health care are added in. Here at Edwize, we have discussed a number of the initiatives employing these contentions, from the infamous Frozen Assets report to Jay Greene’s ditties. The EPI report takes them all on, and none of them are standing at its conclusion.
7 Comments:
1 Sunday links. « PREA Prez
· Mar 30, 2008 at 12:18 pm
[...] Raising teacher compensation is not simply a matter of concern for teachers. It is a critical component in any strategy to improve the quality of American education. No effort in this vein will succeed if schools can not recruit and retain a higher quality teacher workforce. Policies that solely focus on rearranging the distribution of the current compensation package, such as individual merit pay, will not be effective because they do not address the teacher compensation disadvantage in the labor market. Leo Casey [...]
2 jd2718
· Mar 30, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Leo,
We wouldn’t be rehashing the dispute over the 2005 contract if you weren’t raising it. But there you go, making claims about raises stripped of crucial context.
The raises were paid for, in part, by surrendering time, including part of the summer.
And the increases were in the context of having lagged badly behind other districts in the region for 15 years. S badly, in fact, that 43% (if that’s calculated correctly) brings us even only with the nearby districts with lower pay schedules. We still lag badly, as far as I can tell, behind most of Westchester and Nassau.
I have made some NY region teacher salary schedules available so that teachers can check out the numbers for themselves.
Jonathan
3 Leo Casey
· Mar 30, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Jonathan:
I spoke about the last three contracts — the 2005 contract was the second of three.
I think it is fair to say that it is common knowledge that the 43% increases over the last three contracts were a combination of pure raise and time for money swaps. [I don't know why you call the 43% into question the way you do; if you doubt it, you can certainly do the math for yourself, and see if it is correct.]
I think it is appropriate to note that the suburban districts with which you are comparing NYC worked a longer day, and that most still do — 7 hours [and more, in some cases] to our 6 hours and 50 minutes, much less the 6 hours and 20 minute day we had before these contracts. It seems to also be the case that you have taken for your comparison the wealthiest suburban school districts, rather than looked at the average salaries for Nassau County and Westchester County which are readily available from the NYSED.
Finally, I think it is clear that we have made up considerable salary ground with the surrounding districts over the last three contracts. Our members certainly appreciate these increases, recognize the importance of breaking the $100,000 ceiling, and understand just how important it was that we negotiated the last contract — which you called “mediocre” at the time — as we look forward to a significant raise scheduled for May, in this increasingly grim economic downturn.
What is important about the EPI study is that they show the general circumstances under which we accomplished what we did with salaries.
You can relitigate these issues if you want, but I think it is more important to have the forward looking strategic outlook I laid out in the post.
4 phyllis c. murray
· Apr 3, 2008 at 12:48 am
Reflections on Teachers’ Pay: 1964-Present
In 1964 Martin Luther King said, the following: “The richest nation on earth has never allocated enough of its abundant resources to build sufficient schools, to compensate adequately its teachers and surround them with the prestige their worked justifies.” Certainly, he was correct. In 1964, lest we forget, a teacher (M.S. and 2yrs teaching) earned $ 8,600.00 per annum.
Leo Casey is also correct when he writes: “First, the significant pay increases in New York City over the last three contracts — a minimum of 43% for all teachers, and a maximum salary that will break the $100,000 ceiling in May — are all the more significant, given that they run directly against the grain of the national trends.”
The improvements in our members benefits, salaries, and working conditions were won in the past… one strike at a time. We are still standing on the shoulders of those who walked and marched before we were able or even willing to pick up the mantle and march. Therefore, we owe the UFT and all its leaders and the members who “walked the walk” a debt of gratitude for a job well done on our behalf.
Casey said:” for these increases to be sustained here in NYC and spread throughout K-12 education, it will be crucial to build the power of teacher unions across the nation. ” I agree!
We know what our union has done for us…so it is time to ask: What can we do for our union? What can we do to ensure that we keep the power of our union strong?
Phyllis C. Murray
UFT Chapter Leader
5 Civil Servant
· Apr 4, 2008 at 8:11 pm
The UFT have done a great job in improving our salaries, securing and improving our pension benefits, including the recent 55/25 plan. I do not think there are any better plans in the US than our pension and TDA. I do not think the rate of return with our TDA can be matched anywhere.
Bravo UFT !!
6 Schoolgal
· Apr 5, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Thank you “Phyllis C. Murray” for reminding me how wonderful the ’05 contract was and how I should bow to the words of the Almighty Casey. I will never again look at the fact that those in the suburbs earn top salary after 10 years. Nor will I ever again envy that they have a shorter school year and lower class size. And since many of them get more than 10 sick days a year, I will never again question the gains we made. I will not look to the Catholic School teachers who are willing to make a stand against the Pope because I know Bloomberg is the more powerful with much higher celestial connections.
7 phyllis c. murray
· Apr 12, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Item #6 on the UFT Delegate Assembly’s Agenda reads:
” Whereas since its founding, the UFT has become one of our nation’s greatest unions with 200,000 members and a history of outstanding accomplishments be it therefore
Resolved, that on this 48th anniversary we pay tribute to our founders and to our members who through the years, as a result of their loyalty and dedication, have made it possible for us today to proudly say we are members of the Untied Federation of Teachers.”
I sincerely believe this resolution will pass on April 16, 2008 in the UFT Delegate Assembly. And I will say it again, we owe the UFT and all its leaders and the members who “walked the walk” a debt of gratitude for a job well done on our behalf. Surely, these UFTers were problem solvers and activists. We must “grow” another generation of “loyal and dedicated” UFT members. Our life as a union depends on it.
Phyllis C. Murray,
Chapter Leader/Delegate