Media clips
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It’s not hard to see why parents would feel that way. A report by the Economic Policy Institute finds that teacher pay lags 18.7 percent behind those with similar education. For three presidential administrations in a row, federal education policy has been aligned around establishing “test and punish” policies, which have stripped teachers of their autonomy and sent them chasing one initiative after another.
Chicago Tribune September 17, 2018 -
The wage gap between teachers and comparable professionals has grown over time, with teachers now earning 18.7 percent less than other college-educated workers, according to a new analysis. The paper published by the Economic Policy Institute found that the “teacher-wage penalty” has increased significantly—teachers earned just 1.8 percent less than comparable workers in 1994. And although teachers do receive better benefits packages than their peers who were also college-educated, those benefits only mitigate part of the gap: Including benefits, teachers face an 11 percent compensation penalty. Low pay was a major factor driving the widescale teacher strikes and protests in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and West Virginia last spring. Four of those states had the largest wage penalties in the country: Arizona had a 36.4 percent wage gap, North Carolina’s gap stood at 35.5 percent, Oklahoma’s at 35.4 percent, and Colorado’s at 35.1 percent. Overall, teachers’ weekly wages lag by more than 25 percent compared with similarly educated professionals in 16 states. There are no states where teacher pay is equal to or better than that of other college graduates.
Education Week September 12, 2018 -
Teachers in every state are paid less on average than other similarly educated workers, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the University of California, Berkeley’s Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics (CWED), and the gap is growing. This erosion reflects state policy choices, not weak state economies. As our analysis of K-12 funding trends shows, the three states where teachers fare the worst — Arizona, North Carolina, and Oklahoma — have deeply cut taxes in recent years and imposed some of the biggest cuts in general school funding since 2008 (see chart). (whole blog post)
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities September 12, 2018 -
Over the past year teacher salaries have become a topic of conversation across the country, and unrest among educators led to protests and strikes in West Virginia, Arizona and Oklahoma. So how do teacher salaries in Nevada compare? Not so great, according to one new report. The report, released last week by the Economic Policy Institute, analyzed national data on wages to determine what it calls the “teacher wage penalty” — the percent by which teachers are paid less than other similarly educated and experienced college graduates. Researchers found that in 2017, public school teachers earned 18.7 percent less than their comparable non-teacher peers. (whole story)
The Nevada Current September 11, 2018 -
A recent study from the Economic Policy Institute indicates teachers are significantly underpaid compared to other similar workers. The information was included in a paper from EPI Distinguished Fellow Lawrence Mishel and UC Berkeley Economist and EPI Research Associate Sylvia Allegretto, who found teachers’ wages and compensation continue to fall relative to comparable workers. According to the paper, when adjusted for education, experience, and demographic factors, teachers earned 4.3 percent less than other workers in 1996, while in 2017 the teacher wage penalty grew to 18.7 percent. (whole editorial)
The Winchester Sun September 11, 2018 -
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics finds that the gap between teacher’s weekly wages and comparably educated and experienced workers is wider than ever, growing to 18.7 percent in 2017. (whole story)
The Scope Weekly September 11, 2018 -
The teacher pay penalty has hit a new high, Economic Policy Institute
“The erosion of teacher pay relative to that of comparable workers in the last couple of years — and in fact since 2008 — reflects state policy decisions rather than the result of revenue challenges brought on by the Great Recession. A recent study found that most of the 25 states that were still spending less for K–12 education in 2016 than 3 before the recession had also enacted tax cuts between 2008 and 2016. In fact, eight of the 10 states with the largest reductions in education funding since 2008 were states that had reduced their overall ‘tax effort’ — meaning through tax cuts or other measures they were collecting less in taxes relative to their capacity to generate tax revenue. These eight states were Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Virginia.”
Tampa Bay Times September 11, 2018 -
That’s a drop for teachers now vs. teachers just over a decade ago. There’s an even bigger problem when you compare teachers with other college graduates, as Economic Policy Institute researchers Sylvia Allegretto and Lawrence Mishel did. Looking at the period from 1996 to 2017, they find a slight drop in teacher pay while wages for other college graduates rose by more than $100 per week.
Daily Kos September 11, 2018 -
Back in the day, teachers earned more than other comparable workers, but now shrinking education budgets and subsequent cuts in teacher pay place them behind their peers. According to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute, teachers now earn 11.1 percent less than other professionals in comparable fields. Teacher pay has been on the decline for decades, and teacher compensation has gotten so bad that current teacher pay is almost 2 percent less than it was in 1999, according to the Department of Education. It’s no wonder we’ve seen a rise in teacher strikes across the country. According to the EPI study: (whole story)
Daily Kos September 11, 2018 -
The average CEO of the 350 largest firms in the U.S. received $18.9 million in compensation in 2017, a 17.6 percent increase over 2016.cIf the subject of high CEO pay sounds familiar, it should – it’s been going on for decades. While the average worker’s compensation remained flat, rising a mere 0.3 percent last year, the 2017 CEO-to-worker compensation ratio was 312-1. That’s far greater than the 20-1 ratio in 1965 and more than five times the 58-1 ratio in 1989, although lower than the peak 344-1 ratio in 2000. “Why it matters:” said researchers Lawrence Mishel and Jessica Schieder. “Regardless of how it is measured, CEO pay continues to be very, very high and has grown far faster in recent decades than typical worker pay. Higher CEO pay does not reflect correspondingly higher output or better firm performance. Exorbitant CEO pay, therefore, means that the fruits of economic growth are not going to ordinary workers.” (whole post)
The Building Tradesman Newspaper September 11, 2018