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Comment by legitster | Hacker News Reader

One thing this report fails to include is the total compensation package of teachers.

It varies state to state and district to district, but in general teachers get very good healthcare plans and a pension. When I compared notes with my teacher friend, I found that his benefits package would be worth about $15k a year (assuming the pension plan is well run). And let's not forget they only work 180 days a year.

While inflation has not been kind to their salary gains, it has been very kind to the pension gains. So the total compensation package has probably not changed much.

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> And let's not forget they only work 180 days a year.

That's just for the academic year.

Then they work during the summer in preparation for the next school year, teaching summer school, attending their own continuing education courses or graduate courses, or working a second job to make enough money to make ends meet.

And most professionals do work more, but not hugely more. I'm in a middling org and get 50 days off a year between holidays, PTO, and sick leave (not always used, rolls over though). If I used all my sick leave I'd only work 210 days, just 30 more days than a teacher who manages to take the entire summer off. At a middling org.

Just looked up my local California district, it's 185 contracted days. The districts near me seem to range from low 180s to 190. They also get 5 days they can call out for personal reasons(I don't think they roll over), and a handful of sick days that do roll over. If they work summer school, they get paid extra. 30 extra work days is 6 weeks, which most people would say is significantly more and love to have off.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1108-9.html

Days are a poor measure here. Hours matter as well and teachers are salaried. They don't earn OT, but they often work more than their contracted hours without compensation. In that study the average was 12 uncompensated hours per week, assuming an 8 hour day over the 36 weeks of a school year that's more than 50 uncompensated days of labor.

I object to the claim (in my quoted section above) that teachers only work 180 days a year. They work more than that, either in the excess hours beyond their contracted hours, in the time they take without direct compensation to maintain certifications or earn graduate degrees, or the time they spend working a second job or summer school or running a club just to make ends meet.

At our district summer prep is maximum of two weeks. Which is made up by the two weeks of paid leave most districts are required to give out a year - so it still ends up as 180 days.

Most summer prep is done by admins who are employed 11 months a year, and teachers get paid extra if they choose to teach summer school.

Summer classroom days are not the only summer prep.

Lots of teachers also work summer jobs so they can be not-poor. Super common. (“But their wages aren’t actually that bad” 1 - in many places, yes, they are, and 2 - add a couple kids and a divorce and it’s extremely bad)

It’s also why so many end up doing MLMs.

You're commenting on an article that puts the average wage for a teacher at 69k. That isn't a poor person unless you're redefining poor to be more than half the country. Are some paid lower, certainly. But on average, their wages aren't actually that bad.

Average, yes. That includes a lot earning $36k-$48k.

So instead of using 2000 hours per year to calculate your wage you use 1440 hours

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