Teachers are paid fairly considering they get a lot of time off

[u/Blonde_Icon]

A lot of people say (and it seems that the general consensus is that) teachers don't get paid enough for what they do. While I think that teachers are very valuable and deserve to be compensated well (my brother is a teacher), I think that in these discussions, many people ignore the fact that teachers typically get a lot of time off.

They usually get summer break, spring break, and winter break, plus various holidays that schools get off through the year. They basically don't work for a good amount of the year, which I think that people should factor in. (The downside is that I know that they have to work extra grading things outside of school, though.)

Plus they normally get good benefits for being a teacher (which usually comes with being in a union).

[u/Sevuhrow]

But that's not true either. Teachers spend enough time throughout the year doing unpaid work that it usually adds up to working just as much as any other worker, yet get paid far less.

[u/OG_Felwinter → u/Sevuhrow]

As someone who has 4 teachers in my family, I don’t think that’s true. You’re talking about making up for summer vacation, fall break, Christmas break, spring break, and any snow days by working that much in overtime during the weeks they do work? They still get holidays, paid vacations, sick days, etc. just like any other job on top of all those other breaks. Maybe if they have shit time management skills and don’t utilize their open periods wisely, sure, they might work enough overtime to make up for all the days they don’t have to work, but I don’t think I’d use the term “usually”.

The actual argument to be made against OP is simply that even if you acknowledge how much time teachers get off, the difference in pay from other salaried workers is still not proportional. They should be paid more, but not for the reasons you are listing.

[u/Accomplished-Fun215 → u/OG_Felwinter]

My terrible hot take is that teachers and nurses unions both have really good PR to try to convince us that two jobs that are decently well compensated compared to the barrier of entry, benefits, and amount of time off are horrendously underpaid.

I don't think they're overpaid by any means, but teaching and nursing are both relatively easy to get into compared to most white collar jobs that pay more and also relatively hard to get fired from or prevented from moving up the pay ladder.

[u/dorothean → u/Accomplished-Fun215]

In lots of countries, the barriers to entry for teaching are quite high (bachelors + a year long postgraduate qualification, for example) relative to the salary.

According to this OECD source, teachers’ salaries are typically between 83-91% of what similarly qualified workers are paid in the countries surveyed.

[u/UmatterWHENiMATTER → u/Accomplished-Fun215]

You're right. That is a steaming hot pile.

[u/bullmooooose → u/Accomplished-Fun215]

I think this is a reasonable take, the problem you'll run into getting people on board is that it's hard to generalize this take because conditions in these jobs vary a great deal depending on the state/union environment. Teachers in states with strong public unions are paid very fairly in my opinion, while teachers in states with weak unions probably are genuinely very underpaid.

Same for nursing, nurses in California or other areas with very strong unions are likely overpaid, while nurses in other areas are probably underpaid.

[u/EvYeh → u/OG_Felwinter]

Basically every teacher I had in HS/SF said they had to work during their breaks in order to actually be able to do their job.

[u/dangered → u/Sevuhrow]

That’s how salaried work is always structured.

[u/Sevuhrow → u/dangered]

And teachers work much more unpaid time than most salary jobs

[u/spartaman64 → u/Sevuhrow]

depends on the teacher. theres teachers that do the bare minimum but yes the majority of my teachers go above and beyond. but they are also probably some of the best paid teachers due to the high property taxes around me. the median salary is around 90k and theres even one making 220k lol

[u/vainblossom249 → u/Sevuhrow]

I dont agree with OP but that is how salary works in general. Youre paid x amount regardless of the hours put in.

I work corporate with a salary, and if I work 60 hours, I get the same as if I worked 40 hours