Teacher’s Paychecks Should Reflect their Importance
The public education system in the United States is a very important institution for our nation's youth. In most states, children are required by law to attend public school, unless they are home-schooled, until the age of sixteen. At the age of sixteen, students are entitled, though certainly not encouraged, to leave the public school system if they wish. Public school teachers are asked to account for and educate all of these students, and teachers are professionals who are constantly in demand. In fact, the demand is so great that in several cities semi-qualified professionals who lack the proper credentials are being asked to teach. One possible explanation for this phenomenon
…show more content…
Finally, teachers are also critiqued because they are often only required to work nine months of the year, but many teachers use their summers to teach summer school, attend classes, or design lesson plans for the upcoming school-year.
Most people would agree that teachers are educated professionals much like attorneys and physicians. However, many of these same people think it is not necessary for teachers' wages to be quite as substantial as the wages of doctors and lawyers because teachers are not asked to attend quite as much school. Teachers may not need to be as highly educated as physicians or attorneys, but they do have to complete a fair amount of education in order to earn and maintain a teaching license. Most teaching programs in colleges and universities are difficult to complete in less than five years. Much like physicians and attorneys, public school teachers are required to take an exam in order to receive the necessary license to practice their profession. Teachers must also continue to attend classes in order to maintain their certifications. More important, there are several careers that require less formal education than teaching, and these careers tend to pay more substantial salaries than public school teachers earn. I noticed this major salary inconsistency when I compared my salary at my old job with the salary of a public school teacher.
In 1999, I finished my
Most politicians believe teachers are not motivated and part of the problem. In my opinion growing up most of my teachers were motivated however, the lack of funds and over crowding were bigger stumbling blocks to me getting an education. It is no secret that being a teacher will not make you rich but. In Canada and the United States, most teachers with a four-year degree earn about $40K. I believe most teachers enter that profession to help students go on to lead productive lives.
Teachers should be paid more because “They work outside of the classroom” (Snyder). They have to work on lesson plans, grade their assignment, tests, and quizzes (Snyder). In 5 Reasons Why Teachers Need To Get Paid More, it says, “If you take into account the average teacher’s salary and the hours they spend at work, they could probably make more money being an hourly wage employee.” (Snyder). They should be getting paid more because they do not get paid enough with how much they do outside of work to be able to do what they do in the classroom. Teachers work very hard for what they do and to get everything done.
As a young student, I have always aspired to become a teacher. Growing up, what I realized was that teaching is my future. Teaching is all I have focused on for years, slowly preparing myself to become a teacher. It is my passion and it was I believe I am meant to do. The only thing that worried me over all was the amount of money that a beginning teacher gets paid. I worry because of my future family. I worry that I won't be able to support them with a low-paying salary that teachers receive. I do not want to juggle around more than one job because that would bring stress and take away my focus from teaching. Though it is not about the money and I would never do it for the money, I worry that I won't be able to live off a teacher salary. Teacher pay should increase because higher salaries would improve the quality of the candidates applying for teaching positions, retaining teachers will become easier, and overall to improve the quality of teachers so the success of students would improve.
“Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work” -Susan B. Anthony. Countless women, even here in the U.S. have some sort of the wage gap. The wage gap is the difference between the median earnings of women relative to median earnings of men. In this case, women earn a significant amount less than men. Although the wage gap has gotten smaller over the years, the wage gap still has a long way to go. Women deserve better than just minimum earnings. Full time, working women should obtain the best promotions and benefits. Women that work just as tough and have the equivalent qualifications as men do still earn less, and that is just unacceptable. The wage gap should be abolished on behalf of women of color and their struggle, equal pay is a global problem, equal pay benefits employers and workers, and the wage gap accumulates over time.
Imagine what an extra 20%, or more, in your paycheck could do for you. Maybe it would be the difference between just scraping by and having a little discretionary income. Now, imagine being paid based on your own merit, and not some sliding scale which has historically favored men as the breadwinners of the family. Unfortunately, for most women, equal pay is still a dream. Today, as throughout history, there exists a gender pay gap where women are paid $0.79 to every dollar a man makes. Minority women make even less. Women, of course, have always known this gap exists, but they have had little power to change it.
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
In the year of 2011, there were 3.2 million teachers who were employed at public schools throughout the nation, which served close to 50 million children in grades kindergarten through twelfth (Feistritzer, 2011). Currently, to be employed as a teacher in the United States, one must obtain a Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university, and be certificated in the state that one wishes to be employed. The certification serves as a teaching credential, which is needed for teachers in all states.
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
Not only they work during the season but they work off season too. But teachers work all year round as well, and when you are on your summer brakes, they are buried in a pile of paperwork.
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
In college, students tend to spend a huge portion of their day involved with academic activities. The students are pressured to do well in all of their required classes, even if physical education is not involved in their required classes. First semester college freshmen tend to spend most of their day in their room studying or doing homework, when in reality they should spend some of their day in a gym or playing an intense sport. For some students, the transition from high school (where fitness is a mandatory class) to college (where the students can take the classes they want whenever they want) is difficult. Since the classes they take enforce difficult topics, students tend to neglect physical education due to the increase amount of dedication
A teacher’s salary has come a very long way in the U.S. from 1980 to now, it went from 15 (elementary) and 16(secondary) thousand a year to 57 and 59 thousand a year as average. That is a pretty decent change in just a little over thirty years. But as the salary went up so has the cost of living, so, in reality, it is not much help. Texas is the state with the most teachers since 2014. Texas has a total of 342,257 and California comes in second while New York comes in third (statista). That is a lot of people, who all happen to be on a state salary schedule in Texas. What this means is that teachers all get paid the starts salary and depending on who has been there longer than others determine who gets a bonus or raise.
What are payroll taxes? Payroll taxes are amounts taken out of an employee's paycheck to pay for FICA insurance. FICA or the Federal Insurance Contributions Act makes payroll taxes that also include additional amounts to pay for unemployment insurance and (In some states) Disability Insurance. FICA is what pays for Social Security and Medicare. The withholding amounts for Social Security are shared equally between the employer and the employee. An employee share is 6.2 % for Social security ,and that amount is matched by the employer for a total Social Security tax rate of 12.4 % for the first $113,700 earned. Any income above is not assessed in Social Security income tax.FICA withholdings also include 1.45% for medicare benefits.
Apparently,it doesn't matter how good the teacher is, it matters how long they have been teaching.I think this is very stupid, a teacher can be very good at there job and another teacher sucks at it and the bad teacher would still get paid more if he or she has worked longer than the good teacher.On google it says the average for a teacher is IL makes $61,402 a year.This is obviously not true because it depends on if it's a big city with a big school because in a small town like edinburg is a lot teaching job at a bigger school and get like $50,000-$60,000 in a year.In small towns like Edinburg, teachers may get as less as $25,000 a year when you can get a If you work at a big school, an average employee gets like $27.00 an hour.In smaller schools like edinburg some new teachers will get $12.50 an hour.
In contrast there are many reasons why teachers truly are underpaid. First, what these researchers fail to make public, is the fact that the hourly wage that they base a teachers pay is centered only on the hours that a teacher is present at school. They do not take into consideration the hours that teachers put in at home. On average a teacher will work 20% more Sundays than any other profession, these hours will not be paid or documented into a teachers pay schedule. The reasoning behind the large at home workload comes from the excessive amount of homework and assignments that they must grade or create for previous and following work days. Secondly, they are often forced to work at multiple locations, with early starting hours ranging from 6 to 7 am. Furthermore, some of these locations can be extremely far, costing the teacher an