Inquiry Based Essay 

   Education being one of the most important aspects of a person’s life especially in a country like the United States doesn’t get as much recognition. How would you feel if you found out that the educators that helped the smartest people in America learn how to read and write don’t get paid enough every month? Being a teacher in the United States does have its benefits, but when it comes to high wage, that’s not really provided. No matter how long a person must study to become a teacher, they still won’t be paid as much as for example a mechanical engineer every year. So, with being a teacher, what is the expectancy of being a teacher in the United States, and how does the workload not reflect it?

 The amount of education needed to become a teacher:

Like many other jobs, being a teacher requires certain classes and a certain level of education in order to acquire this job. Like most government paid jobs, being a teacher would first require a bachelor’s degree. According to how to become a teacher by NYSUT.org, it states that “Once you’ve earned a bachelor’s degree in teacher education, the next step toward becoming a certified teacher is completing and passing a series of New York State Teacher Certification Exams.” These three exams being the EAS, the edTPA, and the content specialty test. To earn a professional certification, you must earn a master’s degree in about “five years”. It would also require you to have at least three years of prior teaching experience, for example tutoring or just practicing. In order to become a teacher, you must have at least a 3.0 GPA when graduating college. Other than these requirements “Maintaining a professional teaching certificate requires a lifetime of learning — educators must log 100 hours of professional learning every five years.”

The stress of being a teacher during the pandemic:

   Since the Covid-19 pandemic has started, many of the teachers found it very stressful to keep up with the online and in person students. Teachers were one of the most stressed government workers during the pandemic leading to stress and maybe even depression. According to a survey done by the research firm RAND, funded by the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, it was shown that “More than three in four teachers reported frequent job-related stress, compared to 40% of other working adults. Perhaps even more alarming: 27% of teachers reported symptoms of depression, compared to 10% of other adults.” (Teachers’ stress exceeded other workers’ this year, survey finds, by Matt Barnum). It was also said that from how stressful the workload was, 6% of the teachers decided that they will not be returning to teach the year after and that 13% of the teachers are unsure about their departure. Yet with all the stress and the need to manage between the online and the in-person students, teachers pay still didn’t increase, which you would think would happen with the amount of workload they have set for them in fact the pay lessened in many states. 

      In article called “The Pandemic and the Teacher Pay Problem” by Toch, Thomas; and Jacobs, Sandy, it talks about its concerns with the decreasing of teachers pay during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to what the article says that states like Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee have decided to cut a teacher’s salary during the pandemic. It states that “Now, with states slashing education budgets because of the virus outbreak, teachers face even grimmer prospects. Teacher pay hikes have already been shelved in Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. Hawaii’s governor is proposing to cut teachers’ salaries by 20 percent.”  And 20% percent is a very big number especially after the taxes taken from all teachers pay.

The average salary a teacher gets annually:

  A teacher’s salary differs depending on the level of education you have and on how much experience you have. For 2021-2022 the teachers starting salary in New York is about $61,070 and the level of experience for that is to have a bachelor’s degree and no prior work experience. A teacher with a master’s degree and eight years of prior training or experience gets paid about $83,972. New teachers with only a masters, but no work experience get paid about $68,252. This might seem like a lot of money, but really doesn’t compare to other jobs with the similar level of education. For example, let’s say a mechanical engineer which takes four years of college to acquire that degree make more than a teacher with a master’s degree of more than four years of college.

     Wage gap between teacher and comparable professionals:

  The website article “Teachers are paid almost 20 percent less than similar professionals, analysis finds” by Madeline Will, talks mostly about the differences between the wages of an educator and other professions. According to the article, it states that teachers are earning about “18.7 percent less than other college-educated workers” They states that in the 1994, teachers were paid “1.8 percent” less than workers with similar professions, but now it has increased in many other different states. It also states that “Four of the states with teacher activism had the largest wage penalties in the country—Arizona had a 36.4 percent wage gap between teachers and similarly educated professionals, North Carolina’s gap stood at 35.5 percent, Oklahoma’s at 35.4 percent, and Colorado’s at 35.1 percent.” In 2017, it was discovered that teachers were paid about “$350” less than other government paying employees per week. 

This is a graph that presents how much a college graduate makes weekly compared to how much a public-school teacher makes weekly. We can see that the wage gap between the two categories is very wide.

  Not only are the wages low in general, but also the gender issue plays a role in this. According to the article “There are also gender differences. In 1960, teaching was a lucrative profession for women—female teachers earned 14.7 percent more than comparable female workers. But now, the report found a 15.6 percent wage penalty for female teachers. And male teachers take even more of a financial hit—their wage gap stood at 26.8 percent in 2017.” Even as women get paid less than men in this field, female teachers make up 77 percent of teacher in the United States. And as the article uses an iconic quote “Those arguing that teachers are overpaid have a hard time explaining how, if this is so, men have not swarmed to teaching” If teachers were paid so much then every American citizen would work to obtain a job as a teacher.

  A separate analysis conducted by the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brooking Institution, wanted to study the salary reductions throughout different states. The center’s director, Michael Henson, discovered that the retiring teachers aren’t the cause of the wage decline. Henson concluded that in the year 2017 the salaries had decreased 3.5 percent. He states, “This evidence should compel the public and policymakers to rethink our popular assumptions about how generously (or not) teachers are paid,” Hansen wrote in his analysis. “We all know teaching is not a lucrative profession, but this popular understanding overlooks differences in how teachers’ salaries have eroded over time” maybe the government should start opening their eyes and start addressing this low wage problem.

        A story from experience 

    According to an article called “How to give teachers a $10,000 raise” by Meg Benner, Erin Roth, Stephanie Johnson, and Kate Bahn talks about a women named Megan Doerr who is a kindergarten teacher with low income. The story starts first by telling us about family and her life. She states that her mechanic Fiancé made more money than her and he didn’t even possess a degree. Now 20 years in the future, she is a single mom with a 16-year-old son, and she now reached the compacity of her highest pay. With having to pay for rent and many other bills like her college loans she pays for books and extra things for her students. It states, “As Megan puts it, “I don’t see books, snow pants, and shoes for my students as ‘like to haves.’” These are necessities for her kids, and she refuses to see them go without. In fact, she regularly spends more than $2,000 per year on books, clothing, and other school supplies for her kids. 

   The article continues addressing the issue, by stating “teacher salaries are not commensurate with the weight of this lofty responsibility and the complexity of the skills required to fulfill it. In fact, teachers in the United States are paid far less than individuals in professions that require similar levels of education and skills.” It shows that even with the same amount of education two different professionals have, the latter would get paid more than the educator. An organization that had been founded recently is “Economic Co-operation and Development” (OECD), discovered that teachers earn about 6o percent less than other individuals with a comparable educational background. It also stated that teachers with a high percentage of poverty students get paid less than teachers that work in a school with a low percentage of poverty students. The article states “High-poverty school districts are more likely to be underfunded and lack the resources that educators need to be successful.⁴ Moreover, students in high-poverty schools need additional academic support for a number of reasons, such as lack of access to high-quality early education.” Not only do teachers at a more prestigious school get paid more, but the students also get equipment that is much more expensive than the ones available in the public schools.

   Using these articles, we find that being a teacher in the United States isn’t that easy. It’s possible to become one, but it’s hard to live a luxurious life just depending on the wage acquired from this job. Not only do they get paid little, but much less than many professionals with the same education. 

Bibliography:

1. Will, Madeline. “Teachers Are Paid Almost 20 Percent Less Than Similar Professionals, Analysis Finds.” Education Week, 19 Nov. 2020, www.edweek.org/leadership/teachers-are-paid-almost-20-percent-less-than-similar-professionals-analysis-finds/2018/09.
2. Jordan, Phyllis. “The Pandemic and the Teacher Pay Problem – FutureEd.” FutureEd – A New Voice for American Education, 29 Mar. 2021, www.future-ed.org/how-the-pandemic-could-affect-teacher-pensions.
3. “How to Become a Teacher.” Https://Www.Nysut.Org/Resources/Special-Resources-Sites/Look-at-Teaching/Becoming-a-Teacher-Legacy, www.nysut.org/resources/special-resources-sites/look-at-teaching/becoming-a-teacher-legacy. Accessed 28 Mar. 2022.
4. Barnum, Matt. “Teachers’ Stress Exceeded Other Workers’ This Year: Survey.” Chalkbeat, 15 June 2021, www.chalkbeat.org/2021/6/15/22534048/teacher-stress-depression-pandemic-survey.