Teachers are being tasked with one of the most important aspects of societal growth and development, and yet their wages do not reflect that.
As the effects of the pandemic are becoming clearer, one of the most interesting is the new employment issues suffered by some businesses across the nation. Workers are beginning to choose other options over employment that they do not deem to appropriately compensate them for their labor.
One of the professions that is experiencing that interesting turn around is that of the teaching profession. Teachers from elementary to high school are speaking out across the nation from their low wages and the evidence supports these concerns.
According to the National Education Association, the 2018-19 school year saw the U.S average wage for teachers sit at $61,730. While this sits well above the national line of poverty, several factors reveal more concerning variables involved.
In 2018, the average teacher’s weekly wage was approximately $1,182 according to the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at UC Berkeley. This sits 32.7% below the average wage of other college educated graduates at $1,777.
Furthermore, concerning reports from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics show that teachers are unequally required to put forward their own personal finances to their position.
Educator expenditure on work related materials without being reimbursed by their employers outweigh other college degree requiring positions by an average of 65.8%. Not only are teachers paid a meaningful amount less, but are also being required to put more money into their jobs than jobs requiring the same level of accreditation.
A different study from the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics from UC Berkeley in 2019, found that after taxes, expenditures, and cost of living, teachers have a net income comparable to that of positions not requiring a college degree. Meaning it is more costly to be a teacher and get your education in that field than it is nearly any other college degree requiring field.
This is not supposed to be about putting down any other profession as many workers live in worsening conditions with unequal pay to those on top. This is just about highlighting one piece of that great web of problematic issues with pay U.S. professionals have.
Granted, I can easily be biased due to teaching being my chosen field of study and work. However, there is something unique about the position of education.
I do not think it is biased to say one of the most important parts to any societal growth or learning is having a solid educational program to develop young learners and produce the best citizens we can.
I understand often times schools do not always meet this mark, but the teaching profession is one increasingly burdened with multiple factors. Societal pressure to perform. Job pressure to follow each and every standard of the district, state, nation and more entities above you. The personal pressure of wanting to help students.
The point of this is to say, teachers are one of the incredibly hard working cogs that make the machine of good communities run. While there is an argument that many more cogs need to be metaphorically “greased better”, this very large topic needs to be specified from time to time.
This specification is for the teachers. One of the professions where getting a degree is not financially worth it anymore, almost no matter what state you work in.
If we want the performance of students to grow. If we want the functionality of schools to become better. If we want teachers to be passionate and plentiful, we need to flip that dynamic and make it so teaching is rewarding in a personal sense and financially viable.
