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I'm curious how schoolteacher salaries affect salaries in other occupations. Could you explain what you mean by that?

by steve_b 15y ago

tokenadult 15y ago
Thanks for asking the follow-up question. What I mean is that what status people perceive from being in one occupation rather than another is one of several factors that enter into how much pay is necessary to induce people to seek entry into that occupation. A typical online discussion of why one occupation has a higher average rate of pay than another occupation will omit any mention of at least three or four of the factors already identified way back when by Adam Smith. http://books.google.com/books?id=dDDUAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA216&lpg=PA216&dq=wages+vary+ease+hardship+dishonorableness+Adam+Smith&source=bl&ots=vhmKu68DfI&sig=UFM4KRCLb0VOXLyagf4tFI7rJ7I&hl=en&ei=q6PNTaqIA4Xs0gHw7-CQDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=dDDUAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA216&#... 1. Wages will vary with the ease or hardship, the cleanliness or dirtiness, the honorableness, or dishonorableness of the employment. 2. Wages will vary with the easiness and cheapness, or the difficulty and expense of learning a trade. 3. Wages in different occuptions will vary with the regularity or irregularity of employment. 4. Wages will vary with the degree of trust reposed in an occupation. 5. Wages will vary according to the probability of success in the occupation. One paradox under the "honorableness" factor that schoolteachers encounter is seeking societal respect (which I would certainly agree an effective teacher well deserves), because if societal respect for teachers goes up, then relative to all other occupations pay for schoolteaching is likely to go down. The "probability of success in the occupation" criterion has some interesting interactions with both honorableness and pay, because managerial policies regarding schoolteachers can either set up lockstep promotion schemes based on years of teaching, with tenure, a high degree of job security, or classic "at will" employment (rarely encountered among public schoolteachers after they have taught for a few years). Management being able to distinguish effective teachers from less effective teachers, reducing the job security of ineffective teachers, should result in higher pay for teachers, other things being equal. Current policies in most states of the United States strongly emphasize job security for public schoolteachers over distinguishing the most and least effective teachers. P.S. This madness http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0513-tobar-20110513,0,3002882.column http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0513-tobar-20110513,... I was just reading via Google News is one reason I despair when I think about current school district management practices. Work rules designed to protect job security on the basis of seniority, and qualifications for jobs in schools based on higher education credentials rather than on performance, hurt everyone in the system--including teachers.

I'm curious how schoolteacher salaries affect salaries in other occupations. Could you explain what you mean by that?

by steve_b 15y ago

I'm curious how schoolteacher salaries affect salaries in other occupations. Could you explain what you mean by that?

Thanks for asking the follow-up question. What I mean is that what status people perceive from being in one occupation rather than another is one of several factors that enter into how much pay is necessary to induce people to seek entry into that occupation. A typical online discussion of why one occupation has a higher average rate of pay than another occupation will omit any mention of at least three or four of the factors already identified way back when by Adam Smith. http://books.google.com/books?id=dDDUAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA216&lpg=PA216&dq=wages+vary+ease+hardship+dishonorableness+Adam+Smith&source=bl&ots=vhmKu68DfI&sig=UFM4KRCLb0VOXLyagf4tFI7rJ7I&hl=en&ei=q6PNTaqIA4Xs0gHw7-CQDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=dDDUAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA216&#... 1. Wages will vary with the ease or hardship, the cleanliness or dirtiness, the honorableness, or dishonorableness of the employment. 2. Wages will vary with the easiness and cheapness, or the difficulty and expense of learning a trade. 3. Wages in different occuptions will vary with the regularity or irregularity of employment. 4. Wages will vary with the degree of trust reposed in an occupation. 5. Wages will vary according to the probability of success in the occupation. One paradox under the "honorableness" factor that schoolteachers encounter is seeking societal respect (which I would certainly agree an effective teacher well deserves), because if societal respect for teachers goes up, then relative to all other occupations pay for schoolteaching is likely to go down. The "probability of success in the occupation" criterion has some interesting interactions with both honorableness and pay, because managerial policies regarding schoolteachers can either set up lockstep promotion schemes based on years of teaching, with tenure, a high degree of job security, or classic "at will" employment (rarely encountered among public schoolteachers after they have taught for a few years). Management being able to distinguish effective teachers from less effective teachers, reducing the job security of ineffective teachers, should result in higher pay for teachers, other things being equal. Current policies in most states of the United States strongly emphasize job security for public schoolteachers over distinguishing the most and least effective teachers. P.S. This madness http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0513-tobar-20110513,0,3002882.column http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0513-tobar-20110513,... I was just reading via Google News is one reason I despair when I think about current school district management practices. Work rules designed to protect job security on the basis of seniority, and qualifications for jobs in schools based on higher education credentials rather than on performance, hurt everyone in the system--including teachers.