teachers, should they have higher pay? Options

[kantoaznboi]

i believe that teachers are one the most underpaid jobs. if you honestly think, where would all the doctors be, or the surgeons be if there were no teachers? Teachers are one of the most important jobs u can have, so y do they have such low wages.

wat do u think bout this topic?

[ComradeRed]

Teachers are probably underpaid.

This is because the government acts as a monopoly hirer (not really, but close enough since there aren't that many private schools). In a market with a monopoly employer the wages of employees will be lower than where they should be. They did a study about this with nurses--nurses in cities with only one major hospital only made 50-70% of what nurses in cities with ten major hospitals made and it makes sense in theory because a monopoly seller results in higher prices, so a monopoly buyer ought to result in lower prices (the "price" of labor is the wage rate).

The teachers have a union in the form of the AFT, and in many cases, a strong enough union is enough to increase the wage in a monopoly to where it should be, but the AFT is weak due to their lack of striking power, the ease with which substitutes can be brought in, and the fact that the government, unlike a monopoly business, is always on a stronger field than a union because the government gets its revenue no matter what, whereas the manager of a monopoly firm might have to negotiate to protect some of his own profits.

http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos069.htm

"The estimated average salary of all public elementary and secondary school teachers in the 2003–04 school year was $46,597. Private school teachers generally earn less than public school teachers, but may be given other benefits, such as free or subsidized housing."

The net pay (including benefits) of teachers at private schools (excluding Catholic schools, where religion and not wages are the main influence) is probably about the same as teachers at public schools--that's because the government puts downward pressure on wages... if private school wages were a lot higher than public school wages, too many qualified teachers would want to teach at private schools, thus allowing the private schools to lower their wages in turn.

Teachers should be paid what they would be paid if the US had no public schools and all independent private schools which set prices and wages independent of each other. That would result in the optimal number and quality of teachers. Sadly, our current near-monopoly system doesn't offer that.