PAY SCALES: What Are They?
If you are a teacher, then you know what a pay scale is
or maybe you know it better as a salary matrix. Either
way, this little piece of a teacher's salary is probably the
most important aspect next to negotiations themselves.
Why you may ask? I will tell you.
These teacher pay scales differ by state or even by
district within a state. They are sometimes controlled
and developed by the administration and sometimes they are
controlled and developed by the teachers themselves.
At my district, we teachers make up the salary pay scale and
decide if there is step movement or if everyone gets the
same exact raise.
A teacher's pay scale is a little something like this.
I have been teaching for 10 years, therefore I am on step 10
out of 20. This is very simplified but you get the
point...I move a step every year and there is a certain
salary for each step. If I worked 15 years, then I
would be on step 15 and make more than the teacher on step
10.
NOT SO FAST!!! If teacher pay scales were only that
simple. I am now going to show you why having teachers
control them is not always a good idea. With so much
power in the hands of whatever committee is forming the
newest teacher pay scale, there are bound to be conflicts of
interest. For example, at my school, we have 9 steps
and you only move to the next step when they allow you to.
Of course the idea is to move to the top as fast as you can
in order to maximize lifetime earnings, but don't tell the
person who is making the decisions that. They are more
concerned with what raise THEY will get. So if they
know they can freeze all step movement for those that need
to move and thus get themselves an extra couple of hundred
for themselves, do you think they would do it? I can
personally tell you that they will! It is very
annoying to watch people make selfish decisions when it
affects an entire district of teachers. It is bad
enough that teachers have to win raises from the district,
but is too much to have to win raises from other teacher.
I have put a couple of example teacher pay scales down
below. You will see how they reward years of service
with advancement across the pay scale.
|
