For nearly fifty years I was a Director and VP of compensation and benefits. During that time I never met a person who was not underpaid, nor did I meet a person who was totally satisfied with his or her pay.
Many, perhaps most, people spend time rationalizing that the person down the hall or in another department has a job of less value than theirs and thus is overpaid.
Is a teacher more valuable than a nurse or an electric lineman who literally may risk his life to get the electricity flowing again? How about the paramedic who saves your life compared with the manager of a nuclear power plant? Is a sanitation worker deserving of pay equal to a police officer? That depends on how attached you are to your garbage. How about the person who invented the computer chip or the programmer who makes your ATM spit out cash so you can spend some of the inadequate pay you receive?
Certainly the most dangerous jobs get rewarded. Ah, not so much. The most dangerous job in America with 111.8 deaths per 100K is commercial fisherman who earn on average $13 an hour. The ninth most dangerous job is that of a refuse collector earning an average $17 an hour and 22.8 deaths on the job per 100K. Police officers, well they come in at number ten with 21.8 deaths per 100K making that job five tenths more dangerous than a taxi driver with 21.3 deaths per 100K and earning $12 an hour. The average salary for a police patrol officer in the US is just over $50,000 or about $23.00 an hour coincidentally about the same as the average high school teacher. I will let you decide which job is more valuable and deserves higher pay.
Clearly at one point in time each job is the most important and most valuable.
If you have the skills and perform a job where there is a shortage of that skill you have higher value. If you are able to get immediate, visible results for an organization you have a high value (temporarily at least). If you have been on a job a long time, you may be paid more although the higher value question remains unanswered. If you have a better education you may be paid more, however that link is questionable too because a good education does not mean you are not a dud on the job.
In many school districts teachers make more money simply because they receive a master’s degree, but does that make them a better teacher? I don’t know, but I know that in other professions you don’t get a raise simply because you receive a degree. In theory at least people get paid at a level that enables an organization to attract the people it needs and to reward good performance. Is there a shortage of teachers that will drive up salaries? Do teachers have a pay system to reward exceptional performance?
How do you think the President of the U.S. feels making $400,000 a year while the coach of the University of Alabama football team makes $6,000,000 (plus bonus)? Ah, good point, some jobs are not all about the money.
The Executive Director of the New Jersey Education Association earns $270,000 a year plus deferred compensation and the President of the same union earns $263,000 plus deferred compensation and a state pension (salaries by the way paid from the dues collected from their underpaid members-talk about paying for results). Do these labor leaders add more value than the President of the United States or ten new teachers? Who knows? Are these “wealthy” Americans paying their fair share, they are (as are the rest of Americans in this category).
Given that the governor of New Jersey earns $157,000 (the law limits the salary to $175,000) negotiating with the teachers union much be an interesting process.
So, are teachers, firefighters, police officers, and the President of the United States underpaid? You bet they are. However, they are in good company with one hundred fifty million other working Americans who are quite certain they are underpaid as well.
The next time you go out to eat on your meager wage make sure you leave at least 20% for that truly underpaid server, keeping in mind the influence she has over what you are putting in your mouth.
Here is the bottom line. If you feel you are underpaid, under appreciated in your job or otherwise simply getting screwed, find a new job where they are able to reward you for your true value…and good luck!
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 