September 12,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, This article has been making the rounds on social media lately . It has been put out by supporters of the teachers union or REA . The article is titled, “The teacher pay gap is wider than ever: Teachers’ pay continues to fall further behind pay of comparable workers”.
Besides the fact that the Economic Policy Institute is a Pro Union Think Tank , just look on the EPI board of directors, you find past and present board members who are heads or former heads of national unions, including Richard Trumka (AFL-CIO), Randi Weingarten (American Federation of Teachers), Andy Stern and Anna Burger (SEIU), Ron Gettelfinger (United Auto Workers), and Leo Gerard (United Steelworkers of America).
“Here is documentation that puts the teacher position in perspective based on accurate, unbiased data:” we are told ???
“The following is a report published by the Economic Policy Institute. EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.
The teacher pay gap is wider than ever: Teachers’ pay continues to fall further behind pay of comparable workers
Report • By Sylvia Allegretto and Lawrence Mishel • August 9, 2016
What this report finds: The teacher pay penalty is bigger than ever. In 2015, public school teachers’ weekly wages were 17.0 percent lower than those of comparable workers—compared with just 1.8 percent lower in 1994. This erosion of relative teacher wages has fallen more heavily on experienced teachers than on entry-level teachers. Importantly, collective bargaining can help to abate this teacher wage penalty. Some of the increase in the teacher wage penalty may be attributed to a trade-off between wages and benefits. Even so, teachers’ compensation (wages plus benefits) was 11.1 percent lower than that of comparable workers in 2015.
Why this matters: An effective teacher is the most important school-based determinant of education outcomes. It is therefore crucial that school districts recruit and retain high-quality teachers. This is particularly difficult at a time when the supply of teachers is constrained by high turnover rates, annual retirements of longtime teachers, and a decline in students opting for a teaching career—and when demand for teachers is rising due to rigorous national student performance standards and many locales’ mandates to shrink class sizes. In light of these challenges, providing adequate wages and benefits is a crucial tool for attracting and keeping the teachers America’s children need.
Our analysis examines the relative wages of teachers but also examines how differences in benefits affect total compensation. We utilize the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) survey from the BLS to analyze the benefits of teachers compared with the benefits received by other professionals. This allows us to compare relative teacher benefits. Our estimates of relative teacher wages and benefits give us a measure of relative total compensation of teachers as compared with other professionals.
https://www.epi.org/publication/the-teacher-pay-gap-is-wider-than-ever-teachers-pay-continues-to-fall-further-behind-pay-of-comparable-workers/ ”
There are several major flaws with using this study , first and foremost is that the income data used in the study is far lower that of the same income data for Ridgewood Schools.
“Average weekly wages (inflation adjusted) of public-sector teachersdecreased $30 per week from 1996 to 2015, from $1,122 to $1,092 (in 2015 dollars). In contrast, weekly wages of all college graduates rose from $1,292 to $1,416 over this period.”
Now take a look at Ridgewood Schools ,notice all the 6 figure salaries and the lowest salaries are about the average of the EPI study. https://www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/923620/File/05-06-13.pdf
The other major problem we have is this “In contrast, weekly wages of all college graduates rose from $1,292 to $1,416 over this period.” All college grads, Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers , Accountants, and these people are work compatible schedules of 10 months of work equals full time and full time benefits as well as tenure?
Really , sorry the teachers have a good deal some would say a great deal .
