Claire Skaggs
D. Schneiderheinze
Macroecomics
2 May 2015
Effects of Supply and Demand on Teachers’ Salaries Supply and Demand has a major effect on our economy. It effects teacher’s salaries more than people think. Salaries are determined by the market forces of supply and demand. Today, schools try to focus on obtaining teachers who have a strong impact on student’s learning abilities. Everyone assumes that teachers are just one group that has the same subject specialties, years of experience, and the same education credentials. People also assume that all teachers are paid the same salary and that everyone agrees how to identify an effective teacher. These assumptions are unrealistic but helpful in explaining further the concepts of
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A higher number of effective teachers are willing to provide their skills to school districts if the wage is high than if it is low. Meaning that effective teachers are willing to work for school districts that have higher paying salaries, even if the working conditions are poor. Along with demand, a change in supply, other than wages, will shift the supply of teachers outward or inward. Outward will mean that more teachers are willing to work for a school district at any wage. An inward shift means that fewer teachers are willing to work at any wage. Increasing wages that effective teachers can command in another occupation, means that any given wage, fewer teachers will be willing to provide their teaching service. The labor market for teachers will be in equilibrium when the number of effective teachers who are willing to teach is exactly equal to the number of teachers the school district is willing to employ. Also, there is equilibrium when the quantity supplied is equal to the quantity demanded at a single wage. This is what economists call the market-clearing range. Some teachers are willing to work at wages set below the market-clearing wage. This creates a problem because there are not enough effective teachers willing to work under the market-clearing price to meet the quantity demanded at that wage. There are however, effective teachers whose decisions of employment are based on other things, not just wage. They are not throwing out the financial obligations,
The schools from poorer towns and cities do not have the financial assets available to them to hire the kind of teachers that schools with more money have the capability to employ.
In today’s society one of the most important factors in selecting a career field is rate of pay. No matter whether the profession maybe, the dollar figure must be within a range that allows the employee to maintain a substantial lifestyle. The debate of teacher pay scales has raged on for years. Many argue that the current pay scale for teachers is a scale which rewards teachers merely for seniority. They argue that the current pay scale overlooks those educators which demonstrate exceptional performance. Teacher merit pay systems have been the most popular suggestions made to remedy the problems seen with the current pay scale. Although the current pay scale may not be completely effective, the idea of
“Teachers across 34 developed countries make about 22% less, on average, than their full-time counterparts with similar education levels who have chosen to do pretty much anything else with their lives,” (Edwards). If students are the future, why do teachers get short-changed with low salaries compared to other professionals? All teachers have a college education, yet with their low salaries, they spend many years paying off college loans. Next to the military, teachers have most important job in our country, and they are not paid for their
High school teachers’ average salary varies across the world. The United States is said to be one of the richest countries in the world, yet our teachers are being paid one of the lowest amounts. The Education Intelligence Agency, author of the article “Ohio Teacher Overcomes Union’s Tolerance” published an International Teacher Salary Report ranking the fifty states by “how much the average salary exceeded per capita personal income.” According to the Education Intelligence Agency Ohio’s percentage rate is only fifty- five point one percent. According to the Education Intelligence Agency the lowest state percentage is in South Dakota at twenty- three point six percent and the highest state percentage is
For some students, even though they can get high scores in exam, but that’s all they can do. They just memorize the solution and don’t try to understand and absorb the real knowledge behind the exam, for these kinds of students we can’t say that their teachers do well. Comparing with this, some students have really penetrating understanding to the knowledge, their know how to use them even though it can’t reflect on their exam scores sometimes, but their teachers still deserve higher paid. There is no doubt that we can’t tolerate keeping low-performing teachers in classrooms because it hurts everyone, but the method used to evaluate teacher performance should be sophisticated enough to consider all factors that can affect a child’s success in classroom before they can be used to as a standard to punish or award teachers. Chicago strike also evokes a debate toward salary problem. Chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city at $76,000 a year before benefits, compared with the median household income in Chicago is $46,000 (BBC News: para 4). So many people couldn’t understand that teachers rejected a 16 percent salary increase when most occupations are not getting and raises and many people are under unemployment. There are two reasons that CTU still raise salary debate even though teachers already get enough paid. Firstly, CTU considered the law aspect. According to Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, it is illegal for teachers to strike on all
The issue of teacher shortage today is continuing to grow. The effects of the achievement gap are reaching the teachers, not just the students: “...good administrators and teachers, who are doing their best under difficult circumstances, will be driven out of the profession…,” (Boyd-Zaharias 41). The achievement gap is part of the reason teachers feel they are underpaid, which happens to be one of the leading cause in teacher shortage considering, “Teachers were paid two percent less [than comparable workers] in 1994, but by 2015 the wage penalty rose to 17 percent,” (Long). Being a teacher requires passion in order to stay in the field, especially if the money in teaching is decreasing. Money is an important aspect for people when it comes to their careers, therefore, fewer people want to become teachers. This lack of teachers and the lack of college students studying to become a teacher leads to unqualified teachers and larger classroom sizes (Ostroff). Both of these causes are eventually affecting students’ learning environments. I chose this issue in education for my project because I have personally felt these effects, and I know others who have as well. As a future educator, I want to see better wages and better benefits, but this can only happen with qualified, passionate teachers. I plan on being one of them, and I plan on sparking a change. I am a future educator fighting to end teacher shortage.
This is another factor which could lead to high teacher turnover in the United States. The current teacher average salary has just gone higher by less than 4 percent from the salary of nearly two decades ago. This way, the teachers are not able to cope with the high inflation and escalated cost of life with this pay. This makes teachers to have high mobility rate in search for better jobs or the so called greener pastures.
There is no way to find out faculty such as, “School counselors, librarians, art teachers, and special education teachers” (Orlowski and Spooner). There is no possible way to judge these teachers' salaries because they do not have teachers. Therefore, they do not hold tests to determine the pay. If merit pay is at work at a school, “fewer educators (will) want to work in these important positions” (Orlowski and Spooner). People wanting to work in these positions may back out because they do not know how they are going to get their pay. This leaves people who want to work in a job like this in a state of
Many people wonder if teachers should or should not get paid more than they do. A lot of people believe that teachers should get paid more, but there are some that do not. Parents that want their kids to have a good education want teachers to get paid more. For example, P.V Derkachev said, “… teacher pay influences the quality of education.” (Derkachev 574). Teachers that get payed more would be more likely to perform better at their job and not mind the extra time that they have to do stuff outside of work to get everything done. Matt Barnum said, “Higher salaries --- even small bonuses ---- can and do keep some teachers in the classroom, and likely improve outcomes for their students.” (Barnum). The student is going to get taught better if teachers get paid more because the teacher will want to teach at the best of her ability which will help the student.
Teachers have and will always have a big impact in everyone’s life and if not everyone, well, at least they did for me. They teach you everything you need to know about a subject and valuable life lessons, so why are they not paid sufficiently enough to make a decent living? Teachers salaries have always been low and I believe it is the time that changes. Being a lawyer, doctor, or engineer is great, but none of that would be possible without the insight of a teacher, I will inform you in this paper on why I believe there is a need for action. I will go over the background of teacher’s salaries, my ideas on what would be best for teachers not just in Texas, but nationwide, and pros and cons on the issues and ideas at hand.
The low pay for our educators is causing many negative effects. New York Times shows that the low income is causing sixty-two percent of teachers to have a second job outside of their teaching jobs. Just to have enough money to support their families and make ends meet. Most everyone decides to college to prevent having these struggles with money, and to avoid having to work multiple jobs, when they get older; however, not when it comes to living off of only a teacher’s income, the struggles to have enough money are interminable. This low pay is also causing most teachers to retire, and find new jobs. New York Times states, “every year 20 percent of teachers in urban districts quit. Nationwide, 46 percent of teachers quit before their fifth year. The turnover costs the
In the last two decades, the United States has seen drastic reforms to in education. Teachers now face rigorous performance rate testing and underfunded schools (Klien). In Colorado, teacher pay has “declined by 7% over the past decade” (Whaley). For years, teaching primary or secondary education was considered a respectable and stable job. However, Colorado is now facing problems regarding the teacher workforce. Colorado is experiencing a labor shortage in educational school teacher positions in due the declining perception of teaching impacting the quality of the education in Colorado. The severity of this shortage will continue to increase in the next 5 years and will affect the other Colorado Industries.
Most professions compensate for an employee’s formal education as well as any other experiences relevant to the position. Kirby et al. (1993), found the factors reported to affect teacher salaries included “cost of living, revenue-generating potential, supply and demand for teachers, local industry wages and salaries, and salaries of neighboring districts” (p. 111). The authors (1993) further explain “no one model has been found to satisfactorily explain variations in teacher salaries within and across geographical regions” and “In education,
With beginning teachers usually earning entirely less than other college graduates, the profession is at loss of top-notch, quality people who tend to find jobs seeking more money. Almost 50 percent leave the profession within 5 years, lured by higher pay and prestige elsewhere in the booming U.S. economy (World, 1999, par. 7). Starting teachers average a $25,735 salary in the United States compared to an engineer earning $56,820 or a physical therapist earning $56,600 (Engineer, 2000, par.1). And what signal does it send out about the value of good teachers and a good education when a 45-year-old teacher with a master’s degree earns $45,000 a year and a 25-year-old out of law school often starts at $80,000, considering a six year education for a master’s degree and a seven year education for a law degree (Greenhouse, 2002, par. 4)? A teacher is also given no compensation for the long hours spent basically in overtime work. The teacher’s day does not end when they leave school because if lesson plans, grading, or planning is not completed, it will have to be finished on their own time. Accountants, paralegals, and engineers all are compensated and get paid overtime for work that does not get completed in a regular day or if they want to stay and
Lurking over our great country is a troubling issue that is plaguing the professional educational workforce. When compared worldwide, American teachers work the most hours, yet are paid in the lowest brackets when related to the top 32 nations (Teachers Pay). In addition, when you compare a teacher’s salary to other four year degree salaries, teachers are among the 5 lowest paid degrees (O’Shaughnessy). Not only are the salaries among the lowest in the American workforce, a typical teachers at home workload exceeds all other professional jobs by 20% (Current). Furthermore, teachers were only given a 2.3% salary raise in 2009. Yet the rate of inflation rose to 3.1% causing a loss in purchasing power and creating a hardship on the