The topic of teacher pay pops up regularly, usually generated by reports like this from left leaning organizations.
Is teaching a critical profession, certainly. Are teachers important, Good teachers are essential. Is teaching rewarding financially? Not compared to some professions it isn’t. Is teaching as a profession comparable to other professions with comparable education levels, no, it is not‼️
There is no teacher pay penalty.
Teacher pay varies greatly and reflects the demographics of where they teach. The average teacher pay in the Northeast is higher than the median national household income for example.
There are so many variables between teaching and other jobs, simply comparing pay by college degree is ridiculous.
Sand asserts that “[F]ull-time public school teachers work an average of 1,490 hours per year, including time spent on lesson preparation, test construction, and grading, providing extra help to students, coaching, and other activities.”
real education.com
Those hours are 72% of a normal work year- which on average wipes out the pay gap. However, all successful professionals put in many more hours each day, work on weekends, vacations, etc. than they are paid for. There are many other inherent benefits as well like job tenure, and pensions in most cases.
A good teacher is invaluable, it is not possible to pay them commensurate with their value they provide, but they are public employees and it is not valid to simply compare salaries by college degrees. That is a false narrative.
They have one thing right though. Teaching is becoming more difficult and stressful as unruly students receive parent support (or are ignored) and the teachers don’t.
Teacher Pay Penalty Still Looms
Summary: Teacher pay has suffered a sharp decline compared with the pay of other college-educated workers. On average, teachers made 26.4% less than other similarly educated professionals in 2022—the lowest level since 1960.
Key findings
- The pay penalty for teachers—the gap between the weekly wages of teachers and college graduates working in other professions—grew to a record 26.4% in 2022, a significant increase from 6.1% in 1996.
- Although teachers tend to receive better benefits packages than other professionals do, this advantage is not large enough to offset the growing wage penalty for teachers.
- On average, teachers earned 73.6 cents for every dollar that other professionals made in 2022. This is much less than the 93.9 cents on the dollar they made in 1996.
Why this matters
Teachers have one of the most consequential jobs in the country—they have the future of the U.S. in front of them every day. But teaching is becoming a less appealing career choice for new college graduates. Not only are levels of compensation low, but teaching is becoming increasingly stressful as teachers are forced to navigate battles over curriculum and COVID-19 related mandates as well as rising incidence of violence in schools.
Low pay makes recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers difficult. A lack of well-qualified teachers means we cannot equip future tech innovators, researchers, and educators with the training they need to emerge as leaders.
How to fix it
The downward trend in teacher pay must be reversed. Local and state politicians and community members can show respect for the profession by significantly boosting teacher pay. Targeted policy action is needed on school funding as well. State and local governments will require federal support to maintain and improve resources for schools. Finally, public-sector collective bargaining should be expanded since unions can advocate for improved job quality and a higher level of resources.
Source: Economic Policy Institute
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
The teachers need a pay raise is an old complaint, as if more pay would raise the reading level and math ability of the students. You would get the same results from the same teachers. Some are good, most middling, and the rest are poor examples. The problems with discipline are well documented and nothing is done. The educational curriculum is designed by fluff headed, so called curriculum experts in colleges that are overrated and out of touch.
The teaching profession is a government job category like correctional officer, police, etc.., the pay is is by education level and experience, not by performance.
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I appreciate teachers, value their work, and I think they deserve to be paid fairly. Many teachers leave the profession after working for only a few years. School boards and local politicians typically propose raising their salaries to be more competitive with other professions as a solution to this exodus. This reasoning implies newly minted teachers and college students studying to become teachers were somehow unaware of these differences in compensation until they began working and then many of them quit in frustration. Maybe they discovered something else once they started teaching. Such as the adversarial relationship between many parents and teachers which exists today; as a young student, I was well aware that my parents and my teacher had each other’s back. Disruptive students and the lack of authority and backup from administration to maintain order in the classroom. And smearing of the profession over poor average standardized test scores of schools generally located in low income neighborhoods. Its as though those doing the criticizing are unaware of what else contributes to the students’ scores besides the performance of their teachers. Things like: whether the students live in a home safe from violence and rampant drug use, are well fed and receive medical and dental care, have one or two loving parents who read to them and supervise their performance of homework, and much more.
So while I suspect the teachers would welcome a raise, pretending that is the solution ignores the real problem which results in many leaving the profession prematurely.
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The Chicago Teacher’s Union runs Chicago. And the schools are some of the worst in the Country. The union president has said the school choice is racism! And this year she’s sending her son to a private Catholic school so he can play soccer! We must have school choice to weed out the do-nothing and overpaid teachers in that union.
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The source Economic Policy Institute is a left leaning group so no wonder they advocate for more government spending. Bigger salaries-more union dues flowing to the the party of government–no mention of charter schools–vouchers–home schooling. Did I read the in Baltimore not one student in the public school system could pass a state competency test. What’s the solution to Baltimore–DC–NYC and every big city where student test results are abysmal? You got it !!! MORE MONEY! In the old days folks from one political party would stand in front of the school house door–now the same politicians stand inside the school in front of the doors and won’t let the kids out. Looks like racism continues to rear its ugly head.
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