2 ms·

If you have a 35 hour work week and I have a 40 hour work week, where neither of us have work obligations off the clock, then you have more time off work then I

If you have a 35 hour work week and I have a 40 hour work week, where neither of us have work obligations off the clock, then you have more time off work then I do, yes? I don't know what you mean by "should be treated as a paid vacation". The comparison is for yearly income made by someone who is a teacher (which requires a bachelor degree), vs. yearly income for the median someone who has a bachelor degree pro-rated to ~10 months on the assumption that that person has no work obligations for 2 months. Call that "paid vacation" or call it "seasonal unemployment" - it doesn't affect my argument. I do not believe there is any real meaning in comparing those two incomes in order to establish if the teacher is over- or under-paid. > teacher acquaintances are able to find some work when schools are closed by Yes, one of the other issues I have with the comparison (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826659 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826659 ) is that I couldn't tell if the $62,870/year for a HS teacher included that additional income, which would make the presumptive time-off-for-summer comparison even less relevant. > Performing to the required standard A.K.A. work-to-rule. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-to-rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-to-rule even lists teachers as an example. Ha! Here's a guide for teachers on what to do/not do in a work-to-rule action! https://taaaconline.org/pdf/wtr-kit/WORK%20TO%20RULE.pdf https://taaaconline.org/pdf/wtr-kit/WORK%20TO%20RULE.pdf I have no problems viewing this as a valid labor action against a bad work environment. I object to willcipriano's analysis arguing that teachers are being paid roughly market rates for their jobs.

adolph 5y ago
> If you have a 35 hour work week and I have a 40 hour work week, where neither of us have work obligations off the clock, then you have more time off work then I do, yes? Yes, agreed. And if our earnings are equal then I am effectively being compensated better for my time. On the other hand, if I earn .875 to your one, then we are being compensated equally. Likewise, if person A works 10/12ths the time of person B and earns 10/12ths the wage, then they are also compensated equally. As I understand your claim, for teachers uniquely the other 2/12ths are spent performing non-compensated activities that are necessary to remain a member of the profession in good standing or to satisfy requirements of a particular workplace such as extra-curricular activities or off-clock administrative work. As a result, it is wrong to discount the average salary of a teacher by 2/12ths. I don't agree with this analysis and I have addressed both topics. For professional licensing, many occupations have continuing education coursework and examinations and even many workplaces outside of a particular profession require the same. Teaching does not seem unique to me in this respect. Do you consider the professional licensing of teachers to be radically different than the many other occupations with requirements for a bachelors degree and licensing? Teachers may also engage in labor outside their regular duties that may or may not be completely voluntary and compensated. For the purpose of this discussion I will focus on involuntary and uncompensated labor. To the extent and degree that this exists outside of catchup work due to unproductive workers (such as grading papers after hours, preparing curricula over the summer, etc), I have not seen quantified or compared to other workplaces. Thus it would be difficult to compare to other occupations with requirements for a bachelors degree and licensing. Do you have quantification for this claim of involuntary uncompensated labor?
- eesmith 5y ago
  > As I understand your claim, for teachers uniquely No, that is not my claim. My claim is that the summary numbers at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28823492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28823492 , which purport to demonstrate that teachers are being paid at roughly market rates, is invalid. [1] I don't claim anything unique or radically different about teachers. [1] To wit: the analysis shows equal earnings, but 1) doesn't show equal time, 2) doesn't show that the earnings are only from teaching over 10 months, and 3) doesn't factor in the teachers with a MS degree or higher. > Do you have quantification for this claim of involuntary uncompensated labor? I do not know what "involuntary uncompensated" means. I do not know how to categorize when off-school-grounds work is "catchup work due to unproductive workers" or due to some other factor. I do not see how those terms are meaningful. At https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28825539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28825539 I linked to https://www.scholastic.com/primarysources/pdfs/Gates2012_full.pdf https://www.scholastic.com/primarysources/pdfs/Gates2012_ful... which says "teachers work an average of 10 hours and 40 minutes a day, three hours and 20 minutes beyond the average required work day in public schools nationwide". Different sources give different times, and I am not able to tell how to interpret all of the sources. Eg, if a teacher works in an office job over summer, is that income counted in the total annual income to the median teacher? And are the time estimates similarly adjusted?
  - adolph 5y ago
    Ok, so your claim is that a particular analysis of teacher compensation is invalid because it does not include factors you think are important but for which you offer no evidence in terms of significance or quantity other than a Gates Foundation self-reported survey in which the claim of 10.7 working hours still acknowledges that the "average required work day for teachers is 7.5 hours." On the other hand, the comment with summary numbers cited Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers combined with an objective overall measure of productive working months of the year. If the majority of teachers are so inefficient that they spend 44% additional hours to accomplish their daily mission then there is a much larger problem than compensation. That this occurs in a well-unionized occupation is bizarre. It's as if the unions were aligned against the workers for some reason.

adolph 5y ago

> If you have a 35 hour work week and I have a 40 hour work week, where neither of us have work obligations off the clock, then you have more time off work then I do, yes? Yes, agreed. And if our earnings are equal then I am effectively being compensated better for my time. On the other hand, if I earn .875 to your one, then we are being compensated equally. Likewise, if person A works 10/12ths the time of person B and earns 10/12ths the wage, then they are also compensated equally. As I understand your claim, for teachers uniquely the other 2/12ths are spent performing non-compensated activities that are necessary to remain a member of the profession in good standing or to satisfy requirements of a particular workplace such as extra-curricular activities or off-clock administrative work. As a result, it is wrong to discount the average salary of a teacher by 2/12ths. I don't agree with this analysis and I have addressed both topics. For professional licensing, many occupations have continuing education coursework and examinations and even many workplaces outside of a particular profession require the same. Teaching does not seem unique to me in this respect. Do you consider the professional licensing of teachers to be radically different than the many other occupations with requirements for a bachelors degree and licensing? Teachers may also engage in labor outside their regular duties that may or may not be completely voluntary and compensated. For the purpose of this discussion I will focus on involuntary and uncompensated labor. To the extent and degree that this exists outside of catchup work due to unproductive workers (such as grading papers after hours, preparing curricula over the summer, etc), I have not seen quantified or compared to other workplaces. Thus it would be difficult to compare to other occupations with requirements for a bachelors degree and licensing. Do you have quantification for this claim of involuntary uncompensated labor?

eesmith 5y ago
> As I understand your claim, for teachers uniquely No, that is not my claim. My claim is that the summary numbers at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28823492 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28823492 , which purport to demonstrate that teachers are being paid at roughly market rates, is invalid. [1] I don't claim anything unique or radically different about teachers. [1] To wit: the analysis shows equal earnings, but 1) doesn't show equal time, 2) doesn't show that the earnings are only from teaching over 10 months, and 3) doesn't factor in the teachers with a MS degree or higher. > Do you have quantification for this claim of involuntary uncompensated labor? I do not know what "involuntary uncompensated" means. I do not know how to categorize when off-school-grounds work is "catchup work due to unproductive workers" or due to some other factor. I do not see how those terms are meaningful. At https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28825539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28825539 I linked to https://www.scholastic.com/primarysources/pdfs/Gates2012_full.pdf https://www.scholastic.com/primarysources/pdfs/Gates2012_ful... which says "teachers work an average of 10 hours and 40 minutes a day, three hours and 20 minutes beyond the average required work day in public schools nationwide". Different sources give different times, and I am not able to tell how to interpret all of the sources. Eg, if a teacher works in an office job over summer, is that income counted in the total annual income to the median teacher? And are the time estimates similarly adjusted?
- adolph 5y ago
  Ok, so your claim is that a particular analysis of teacher compensation is invalid because it does not include factors you think are important but for which you offer no evidence in terms of significance or quantity other than a Gates Foundation self-reported survey in which the claim of 10.7 working hours still acknowledges that the "average required work day for teachers is 7.5 hours." On the other hand, the comment with summary numbers cited Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers combined with an objective overall measure of productive working months of the year. If the majority of teachers are so inefficient that they spend 44% additional hours to accomplish their daily mission then there is a much larger problem than compensation. That this occurs in a well-unionized occupation is bizarre. It's as if the unions were aligned against the workers for some reason.