4 ms·
My high school, a few years before I got there, once decided to post the teachers' salaries in the lounge for all the teachers to see. The salaries had no names
by karzeem 16y ago
My high school, a few years before I got there, once decided to post the teachers' salaries in the lounge for all the teachers to see. The salaries had no names next to them, but since they did list the length of each person's tenure, the teachers deanonymized the list quickly.
There was a ruckus when people discovered that a lot of the worst teachers were making the most money. Your salary was basically determined by how frequently you had the nerve to ask for a raise, plus some consideration for how long you'd been at the school. Not exactly a winning compensation scheme.
If your compensation scheme is well-reasoned and defensible, it's a lot less of a problem when people figure out how much everyone else is making. If your compensation scheme sucks, expect outrage.
- maukdaddy 16y agoActually, almost all teacher salaries are based on length of service (via union contracts). Teachers seldom, if ever, are paid according to performance (at least in public schools). edit: How did this go from +4 to -1? I was just pointing out that in the US, most teachers at public schools have salaries that are set via length of service. Downmodding on HN has really gotten out of hand.
- stretchwithme 16y agoWasn't karzeem was describing how it is at karzeem's high school?
- smallblacksun 16y agoNearly all public school teachers are NEA members, and the NEA strongly opposes pay based on anything other than seniority.
- _delirium 16y agoThe NEA opposes it, but they haven't been able to completely stop it, especially since Obama's been a big proponent. The Teacher Incentive Fund allocated $200m conditional on underperforming schools adopting performance-pay plans, which has caused some to switch (e.g. Seattle has a trial program).
- karzeem 16y agoIt's a private school, so it's relatively free to set salaries as it pleases.
- Dylanlacey 16y agoI think defensibility is one reason why companies have their pay secrecy clauses. People don't like confrontation, in general, and asking for a raise is one kind of confrontation, so people are slightly defensive (and thus slightly irrational). If they're then made to defend those choices, they have to give clear reasons on WHY they gave the aggressive negotiatior whose not great at coding a raise, in lieu of the star performer who does badly at human tasks. Since there's no nice way to do so, they'd rather just avoid the situation altogether.