Real Talk
Teacher Kyle Cohen is upset, and rightfully so. In a viral response to a comment by a viewer, he breaks down the absurdity of the common notion that teachers are receiving an adequate salary because they “only work 8 or 9 months of the year.” In response, he breaks down how underpaid teachers are by showing how much he made in his first year of teaching. It’s outrageous, at best.
Breakdown of the math
Here is the math. Get your calculators and double-check the accuracy because the result is truly shocking:
200 hours a month for regular hours and duties
+10 hours per week for extra meetings, clubs, and conferences
=240 hours a month times 9 months
=2,160 hours of work yearly
31000 yearly salary divided by 2160 equals 14 dollars an hour
And that’s before taxes.
So Kyle made 14 dollars an hour as a first-year teacher even while factoring in the justification of working only 9 months. Some fast food establishments pay over 15. Do you still think teachers are paid too much because they don’t work the entire year?
Where’s our overtime?
Policemen, firemen, and other government employees get time and a half for overtime according to the Fair Labor Standards Act.
What do we get?
We get micromanaged and made to feel as though we aren’t working enough if we leave when our contract time ends. Yet we are paid zero dollars for the extra minutes we take away from our families.
You see, the FLSA Act has a teacher exclusion clause that prevents us from being compensated for overtime no matter how little our teacher salaries are and no matter how many actual hours we spend dedicated to teaching.
I have heard arguments that police and firemen deserve to receive overtime because they deal with life-and-death stress.
Have you been to a school lately?
We are confiscating weapons, being verbally and physically assaulted by students, and engaging in school shooter drills on the daily. We are responsible for creating human beings that do not end up in the criminal justice system.
That is crazy stressful if you ask me.
Underpaying teachers has consequences.
1 in 5 teachers with advanced college degrees is working two or three jobs and selling everything they can, including their plasma, for extra money. They are neglecting their own families and finding roommates to afford the high price of housing.
Some teachers have to supplement their incomes with government assistance. Yes, Mrs. Smith, your child’s first-grade teacher, is paying for her groceries with food stamps. How do you think that makes her feel about the job and the degree that she paid thousands of dollars for?
Being underpaid makes teachers busier and more likely to experience burnout. When teacher burnout happens, students suffer. Teachers who are paid more have students who perform better. Respect trickles down from the top, and everyone benefits.
A legitimate salary is long overdue.
Why has it taken a significant teacher shortage to begin the conversations on educator salaries? A bill was just recently brought to the legislature to incentivize states to have a minimum salary of 60,000.
This should have happened long, long ago, and we wouldn’t be in the flood of bulls@%$ we find ourselves in now. The President is tweeting about teacher raises, and the issue is finally getting attention. But will meaningful and lasting change happen? We won’t hold our breath.
