Tuesday, January 07, 2020

COMPTROLLER REPORT NUMBERS WOULD MAKE STARTING TEACHER LOW WAGE JOB

Earlier in the week we reported on the latest Comptroller's Report on the NYC economy. We noted how wages in NYC private sector were up 4.1% for most of 2019 but teachers and other city employees have settled for 2% raises for this year. It is very interesting to note that Comptroller Scott Stringer considers a starting teacher to be a low wage job. Wages for jobs are highlighted in the report although the report talks about the private sector. It still translates.

Most of the new private sector jobs were in low-wage industries paying less than $63,000 on average. Of the 80,700 new private-sector jobs, 63,000 or 78.1 percent were in low-wage industries. High-wage industries, with average earnings/salaries of more than $126,000, accounted for 14,500 or 18.0 percent of the new private-sector jobs, with just 3,200 jobs or 3.9 percent of total new jobs, paying in the middle of the range.

Teachers in NYC start at $57,845 and we have to pay to get a Masters degree and then 30 credits beyond that Masters. Granted, we do move up to the middle range with a couple of years of experience but we should be starting in the middle range, particularly with the high cost of living in NYC. I keep hearing about a looming teacher shortage coming in certain fields as we baby boomers and the Generation Xers retire.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If Bloomberg becomes President and Moskowitz Secretary of Ed, teaching will really become a low income profession, only for self loathing masochists. During the Bloomberg purge of NYC public schools and the creation of thousands of ATRs, Mulgrew stopped interacting with him entirely; it was like watching a chess match between a grand master (the rest of us the slaves, of course) and an arrogant teen who thinks he’s playing checkers, in part because that’s only game his mom, Randi, taught him. Then Teacher shortages actually will occur here in NYC, with the best kids and teachers being chosen for charters, and a reactive lowering of requirements and pay for all. Additionally, less teachers will be needed because of distance and tech learning. Mulgrew needs to get behind Berne now and start recognizing the harm he’s causing by not openly standing up for what used to be the tenets of Unionism.

Anonymous said...

Because things have gone so well when Bloomberg wasnt involved. Obama 8 years. Trump 3 years. De blasio 8 years and 2 contracts. The job sucks. the system sucks. Bernie Sanders will not change student behavior, he might actually encourage the bad behavior to continue

James Eterno said...

Bernie will empower workers, that means teachers. Read his workplace democracy plan.