Are Teachers Underpaid?

by mommytotwo | More from this Blogger

I blogged not too long ago about people who honestly think that teachers are overpaid. Today I want to show people that educators really aren't overpaid, in fact, compared to people in similar occupations with similar training, they are grossly underpaid.

In the Kansas City area, beginning teachers are paid 22 thousand dollars less a year than someone just starting out in the software development field. Both have similar amounts of college and training, yet the teacher salary falls more than 20 thousand less than the software developer.

Let me give you some specific numbers. The national average salary for a new teacher is 31 thousand dollars. The people just starting out in the following fields make more, with similar amounts of training and schooling. A non-technical researcher just starting out makes a national average of a little over 35 thousand dollars a year. A person just starting out as a management trainee makes a national average of a little over 39 thousand dollars a year.

It doesn't stop there. Several other jobs similar in training and education make much more than the average new teacher does. New nurses just beginning their career make over 44 thousand dollars a year, a public accountant just starting makes over 45 thousand dollars a year, and a field engineer makes over 50 thousand dollars a year, even just starting out in the job.

What is the problem with this? With wages starting low and a financial gap that continues to expand as the years continue, many really good teachers are leaving the profession for better paying jobs in other fields. This not only hurts the teacher who most likely doesn't want to leave, but must for financial purposes, it also hurts students and schools who continually lose wonderful teachers year after year.

Many people are under the impression that because teachers get summers off, that they deserve less pay than their comparable peers do. What many people don't realize is that many teachers choose to work all summer to supplement their income, go to school and further their education out of their own pockets, or spend the summer curriculum planning. Another myth is that teachers get three months off in the summer.

However, that isn't true either. When I was teaching, our school didn't let out until the first or second week of June, the teachers would then work the following week cleaning classrooms, putting things away and prepping the area for the custodians to do deep cleaning. We would then return to our classrooms usually the first or second week of August. During the summer time I would often go back to grad school and complete a class or two. I also taught summer school. As you can see, many teachers do not get three months off to do nothing all summer. My friend who is a nurse actually gets just as much time off as the typical teacher, it is just throughout the year, and she makes over 20 thousand more a year than the typical teacher.

People also express that teachers get wonderful health benefits. Why I do not deny that I received wonderful benefits, I paid an arm and a leg for those. When I stopped my single woman health benefits after getting married and went on my husband's plan, I received over 90 dollars extra a paycheck. This was almost 200 dollars extra a month. This means that as a single person I was paying a little less than 200 dollars a month for my health and dental.

My husband, who had almost the exact same insurance plan and worked for our city as the Youth Sports Director, paid 25 dollars a month for a family plan. My friend who is a nurse and is single pays 12 dollars a month for her insurance plan. So, you can see, not all educators get great benefits for a reasonable price. I even taught in the second largest school district in our state. A family-plan in that same school district is over 400 dollars a month for teachers.

Teachers are underpaid and have been for years. No matter how you put it, teachers often don't make enough money. Many teachers have their master's degree or are working for it. Teachers are highly educated people who deserve to be paid what their peers in similar professions are paid. Why aren't they?

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