#underpayed

Because I didn’t have an open terminal to look up his suit sizing from a month ago

No matter how many times I reiterated he may have to wait, we’re in the beginning of prom season, I have a store bursting with impatient moms and only four computers

You wonder why the service industry has overworked, understaffed people?

The average salary for teachers in the district is $75,000. This largely reflects the older, more experienced workforce.

The teacher’s union is pleading with the district to increase teachers salaries by 6.5 percent.

More specifically, the district had offered a 6 percent raise over the first two years of a three-year contract, but the union wants a 6.5 percent hike at the start of a two-year contract.

The union cites a $1.8 billion reserve that they argue could fund the pay increases among other demands. But the district says the money in the reserve is needed for expenses such as retiree benefits.

"School budgets in California are set in three-year increments, and from July 2018 to June 2021, Los Angeles Unified will spend $24 billion educating students. This includes its entire, existing $1.8 billion reserve," LAUSD recently said in a recent explanation of its budget.

http://www.michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=357

The Myth of the Underpaid Teacher

After many months of demands I was able to secure payroll information for my local district DMUSD. The average teacher's direct cash compensation is $73,000 which exceeds the average entire household income for San Diego county residents of $60,103 (data from US census).

To gain a complete picture on teacher salary one must examine other financial benefits the largest being a lucrative retirement program. Every district employee gets a guaranteed pension which when they retire will pay them 80-90% of their highest salary every year until they die. They can also elect to accept less and their spouse can receive the benefit even if they die. That teacher making $73,000 today will get 80-90% of their final salary number which will be as high as $95,000. They are eligible for retirement beginning at the age of 55.

This retirement program is dramatically more generous than Social Security which most Americans receive. Current middle-age working social security recipients are slated to to receive only 76 cents for every dollar taken from their paycheck. However because teacher's unions negotiated a guaranteed pension amount they are receiving 10-20 times any contribution they make in future retirement payments. To pay this obligation 36% of their total salary needs to be put into an interest bearing account each month. Teachers are contributing 8% leaving 28% to be paid by taxpayers. If the monies are not set aside (which they are not) then they will not be able to grow until retirement meaning that even more money will be required to be paid later. Teachers receive a pension benefit that is worth conservatively $25,000 per year. Since teachers can retire 10-12 years earlier than Social Security allows payments start a decade or more earlier than US workers and teachers pay even less into their retirement accounts than SS recipients.

Unions have negotiated top of the line medical coverage for their teacher members. For DMUSD (which is not dissimilar from other districts) this means $8800 per year in health insurance. This is an additional payment by the district and does not come out of the paycheck as is common in most other jobs. Beginning at 55 retirees can begin receiving their retirement and still have the district pay for their full medical until age 65.

Also negotiated is a calendar work year that limits teachers to 181 work days. Most Americans work 245 days per year meaning teachers get nearly 13 weeks more vacation time than the typical US worker. The days teachers do work the day starts at 8 and ends at 2:30 during that time period there are mandated breaks, non-teaching period and lunch. Schools are prohibited from demanding that teachers work more than those hours. That's only 6.5 hours per day so if teachers are voluntarily working longer that would be moving them closer to the typical 8 hour work day.

With light work obligations, pay greater than the average household income, early retirement and luxurious pension payouts teaching is undeniably a well paid occupation. An economic analysis reveals that teachers at government run schools are overpaid by 52% when compared with comparably skilled workers at corporations. This translates to taxpayers paying an additional $120 billion per year.