Teachers are not underpaid; they are underemployed. Almost\neveryone, including legislators, agree that teachers do not make enough money. But\nwhy are they not working as much as other occupations? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teacher compensation comes in two types: base compensation, which\nis the pay that all teachers receive, and incentive compensation, which results\nfrom additional training or on-the-job performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In almost all states, teacher pay is driven by a salary\nschedule based on years of service and academic credits obtained. Nothing in\nthe compensation system rewards teaching excellence. This type of structured\ncompensation system was installed in the 1920s \u201cto ensure equal treatment for\nall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No other profession operates this way. The current teacher compensation\nsystem is broken and needs to be totally changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A recent article in National\nAffairs <\/em>by Andrew G. Biggs and Jason Richwine breaks down \u201cThe Truth about\nTeach Pay.\u201d The authors cite from the annual report of the Economic Policy\nInstitute (EPI) (which has ties to unions), which states, \u201cthe difference in\nsalaries between teachers and similar private sectors\u2026is 21% nationwide.\u201d However,\nEPI simply compares teacher salaries with the salaries of people who have\nroughly the \u201csame number of years of education and the same demographic\ncharacteristics.\u201d In comparing occupations, educational completion is too vague\nas a skill measure. Not all bachelor\u2019s degrees are created equal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More specifically, EPI executes a regression analysis using\nCensus Bureau data, where respondents make available the figures on their \u201csalaries\nalong with their age, education, region of residence, marital status, and other\nfactors that are predictive of earnings.\u201d Included in this analysis is a\n“dummy variable” indicating whether the individual is a public-school\nteacher. The constant on this variable signifies the outcome on salary of being\na teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This model cannot measure important differences among\nworkers in different occupations. The argument halts when you discard the dummy\nvariable and replace it with any other occupation. Biggs and Richwine point out\nthat \u201cabout four in every 10 occupations we analyzed show an alleged wage\npremium or penalty greater than the one EPI claims for teachers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The authors state that, \u201cno one is surprised or upset that\npeople with engineering degrees earn more on average than people with\nliterature degrees, nor does anyone believe that every occupation requiring a\ncollege degree should be paid the same.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, one issue not addressed by Biggs and Richwine is that\nof underemployment, as stated above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Don Nielsen breaks out a specific example of teacher compensation in Every School<\/a><\/em>: \u201c[A]verage teacher pay in Seattle is $77,239 for a ten-month work year\u2026That same teacher is actually making $58.51 an hour, plus a generous package of benefits that few private-sector employers can match. Teachers in Seattle are employed for 1,320 hours per year, regardless of how many hours they might actually work. If that teacher were employed for a standard year of 2,080 hours, at the same hourly rate, their annual salary would be $121,710.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider two other examples of applying the current hourly\nrate to a standard year of 2,080 hours: New York, where teachers average\n$79,637 statewide, and South Dakota where teachers make on average $42,688.\nAdjust to the new standard and teachers would receive $125,488 and $67,266,\nrespectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As Nielsen concludes, \u201cThe ideas presented here that involve\ncompensation will require more money. However, every state is already spending\na lot of money in dealing with high turnover and having to hire and train new\nteachers to replace those who leave the profession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The analysis above demonstrates that what we have is an\nemployment problem, not a compensation problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Teachers are not underpaid; they are underemployed. Almost everyone, including legislators, agree that teachers do not make enough money. But why are they not working as much as other occupations? Teacher compensation comes in two types: base compensation, which is the pay that all teachers receive, and incentive compensation, which results from additional training or on-the-job performance. In almost all states, teacher pay is driven by a salary schedule based on years of service and academic credits obtained. Nothing in the compensation system rewards teaching excellence. This type of structured compensation system was installed in the 1920s \u201cto ensure equal treatment for all.\u201d No other profession operates this way. The current teacher compensation system is broken and needs to be Read More ›<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":343,"featured_media":2412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1062],"class_list":["post-2411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teaching"],"acf":[],"author_names":["Bailey Takacs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2411"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2411"}],"wp:action-assign-author":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/2411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}