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I’m not so sure, my mom has been a teacher for 6 years and makes around 40k. Similar story for her peers. And even a 20% raise wouldn’t allow her to afford a h

I’m not so sure, my mom has been a teacher for 6 years and makes around 40k. Similar story for her peers. And even a 20% raise wouldn’t allow her to afford a home, or to send her kids to college without a huge debt burden... To be honest, I don’t even really care if that ends up being “in line with industry” some how, that’s still way too damn low. At that point everyone should be paid more. EDIT: realize I mistyped wage, my points still stand about houses or college, and it’s not like her wages will go up much.

shantly 7y ago
My wife makes under $40k after about 10 years. Health benefits blow, too. I'd love if the unions around here were some of those mean ol' ones who get teachers way more than they deserve or whatever. The one here can't even keep their daily planning periods clear of bullshit meetings. She grades or lesson plans for over an hour just about every night, has 30-60 minutes of meetings after school at least once a week. That wasn't so bad before we had kids, but it's really shitty now. Lots of her co-workers work second jobs to make ends meet. Luckily for us I make a whole lot more than she does, which is dumb because she both does way more good than me and works much harder.
- pkaye 7y ago
  The teachers union in my city basically negotiated a deal for higher pay but the union would self fund their health benefits. It turned out to be a bad deal because over the years health care costs skyrocketed compared to the pay increases. What amazed me is some teachers are mentioning premiums higher than the individual market rates. So apparently they can't even negotiate good group premiums.
  - shantly 7y ago
    School district controls ours but this year they were all "the bad news is ya'll got sick too much so the rates are going up and deductible's worse, the good news is it's only going up 10% this year and, oh, probably forever into the future every year, and no we didn't get a second quote, the insurers told us they didn't even make any money on us last year." There's a shocking amount of incompetence and corruption in school admin. Sometimes it's hard to tell which is which.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  My impression (based on having interacted with a lot of teachers, including friends and family members) has been that teachers' unions are "those mean ol' ones who get teachers way more than they deserve", but only for those teachers with a substantial amount of tenure (on the scale of multiple decades). Any other teachers were effectively deemed expendable, getting abysmal salaries and pink slips.
jefft255 7y ago
That's terrible, in Quebec median salary is 60K CAD, topping out at 80K at most schools (https://neuvoo.ca/salaire/?job=Enseignant%20Primaire https://neuvoo.ca/salaire/?job=Enseignant%20Primaire), which is plenty to afford a house (of course not if monoparental). I don't even think that a lot considering the responsibilities they have.
- r-s 7y ago
  Alberta has teachers top out at around 100K CAD. The Average is around 80k. I suspect the average teacher salary is similar to an average software developer salary here. The data I can find actually shows the average teacher salary higher.
- floren 7y ago
  60K CAD is 45K USD, so it's pretty damn close to the OP's cited figure.
  - refurb 7y ago
    Yeah, but everything you buy in Canada is in CAD, not USD, so they are in fact, better off.
  - jefft255 7y ago
    Sure but can you buy a nice two floor house for 250k CAD in the US? In most of Quebec you can.
    - floren 7y ago
      Since Wikipedia says "Quebec occupies a territory nearly three times the size of France or Texas, most of which is very sparsely populated"... well, yeah, you can buy a nice two-floor house for 250k CAD in most of sparsely-populated Texas too.
      - jefft255 7y ago
        By that I mean majors city like Quebec and Montreal. Sure Montreal is expensive but nothing like Toronto.
droithomme 7y ago
> And even a 20% raise wouldn’t allow her to afford a home, or to send her kids to college without a huge debt burden. For many state college systems in the US $40k and below is the magic cut off for family income where any kid accepted not only gets 100% of all tuition and fees paid for, but all room and boarding is paid for as well. So in your mom's case her cost of sending kids to college would be nothing. From $40k to $50k it doesn't cover room and board though, so families in that range will expect to pay $12,000 a year or so for that, minus the $6000 Pell Grant they'll get for being under $50k.

shantly 7y ago

My wife makes under $40k after about 10 years. Health benefits blow, too. I'd love if the unions around here were some of those mean ol' ones who get teachers way more than they deserve or whatever. The one here can't even keep their daily planning periods clear of bullshit meetings. She grades or lesson plans for over an hour just about every night, has 30-60 minutes of meetings after school at least once a week. That wasn't so bad before we had kids, but it's really shitty now. Lots of her co-workers work second jobs to make ends meet. Luckily for us I make a whole lot more than she does, which is dumb because she both does way more good than me and works much harder.

pkaye 7y ago
The teachers union in my city basically negotiated a deal for higher pay but the union would self fund their health benefits. It turned out to be a bad deal because over the years health care costs skyrocketed compared to the pay increases. What amazed me is some teachers are mentioning premiums higher than the individual market rates. So apparently they can't even negotiate good group premiums.
- shantly 7y ago
  School district controls ours but this year they were all "the bad news is ya'll got sick too much so the rates are going up and deductible's worse, the good news is it's only going up 10% this year and, oh, probably forever into the future every year, and no we didn't get a second quote, the insurers told us they didn't even make any money on us last year." There's a shocking amount of incompetence and corruption in school admin. Sometimes it's hard to tell which is which.
yellowapple 7y ago
My impression (based on having interacted with a lot of teachers, including friends and family members) has been that teachers' unions are "those mean ol' ones who get teachers way more than they deserve", but only for those teachers with a substantial amount of tenure (on the scale of multiple decades). Any other teachers were effectively deemed expendable, getting abysmal salaries and pink slips.

jefft255 7y ago

That's terrible, in Quebec median salary is 60K CAD, topping out at 80K at most schools (https://neuvoo.ca/salaire/?job=Enseignant%20Primaire https://neuvoo.ca/salaire/?job=Enseignant%20Primaire), which is plenty to afford a house (of course not if monoparental). I don't even think that a lot considering the responsibilities they have.

r-s 7y ago
Alberta has teachers top out at around 100K CAD. The Average is around 80k. I suspect the average teacher salary is similar to an average software developer salary here. The data I can find actually shows the average teacher salary higher.
floren 7y ago
60K CAD is 45K USD, so it's pretty damn close to the OP's cited figure.
- refurb 7y ago
  Yeah, but everything you buy in Canada is in CAD, not USD, so they are in fact, better off.
- jefft255 7y ago
  Sure but can you buy a nice two floor house for 250k CAD in the US? In most of Quebec you can.
  - floren 7y ago
    Since Wikipedia says "Quebec occupies a territory nearly three times the size of France or Texas, most of which is very sparsely populated"... well, yeah, you can buy a nice two-floor house for 250k CAD in most of sparsely-populated Texas too.
    - jefft255 7y ago
      By that I mean majors city like Quebec and Montreal. Sure Montreal is expensive but nothing like Toronto.

droithomme 7y ago

> And even a 20% raise wouldn’t allow her to afford a home, or to send her kids to college without a huge debt burden. For many state college systems in the US $40k and below is the magic cut off for family income where any kid accepted not only gets 100% of all tuition and fees paid for, but all room and boarding is paid for as well. So in your mom's case her cost of sending kids to college would be nothing. From $40k to $50k it doesn't cover room and board though, so families in that range will expect to pay $12,000 a year or so for that, minus the $6000 Pell Grant they'll get for being under $50k.