Teacher Salary Information

TEACHER SALARIES
A Rebuttal

The Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) recently published a ten year history of teacher settlements compared to the CPI-U (inflation). The article appeared in their publication, Review (March 21, 1997), was distributed at the capitol, appeared in some UniServ offices around the state via member inquiries, and now is available on WASB’s new homepage on the Internet.

Below is a point-by-point discussion of the article.

Teachers Have Lost Purchasing Power Over The Last Ten Years

WASB: “ [Increases in] average [teacher] salaries have exceeded inflation over the last ten years.”

RESPONSE: FALSE. In 1986-87, the average teacher in Wisconsin was making $27,815. In 1996-97, the expected average techer salary is $38,950 -- an increase of 40.03%. However, based on the December CPI-U, inflation increased 43.53% during the same time period. Between 1986 and 1996, average teacher salaries lost money compared to inflation.

Increases in the Average Teacher Salary Were Less Than Inflation in Six Out of the Last Eight Years

WASB: “Over the last ten years the average teacher has received increases averaging 5.51%.”

RESPONSE: FALSE. Between 1986 and 1996, the average annual increase in average teacher salaries was 3.44%. The WASB created a graph which purports to show that teacher salaries increased at a rate greater than inflation for every year between 1985 and 1996. This also is inaccurate (see attached graph).

Using official data from the DPI, WEAC Research replicated the WASB study and came up with the results below. Increases in the CPI-U were greater than increases in average teacher salaries in six of the last eight years. Further, most of the gains in average teacher salaries occurred prior to 1990.

The WASB does not report the methodology they used. Therefore, it is impossible to know how they came up with their percentage increases. Their numbers, however, do not jibe with officially reported average teacher salaries from the DPI.

Average teacher salaries have lost money compared to inflation since 1986.

Average teacher salaries and benchmarks, key places on the salary schedule, are the two common ways to track teacher earnings. Below is an examination of both benchmarks and average teacher salaries for different time periods.

Teacher Salary Schedules Are Losing Money Compared to 1970

Twenty Five Year Benchmark Analysis

A 25 year snapshot from 1970 to 1995 shows that what teachers get paid at each benchmark is actually less in terms of purchasing power today compared to 25 years ago. This is true at every benchmark.

For instance, in 1970 the average BA minimum statewide was $7,070. In 1996-1997, the BA minimum was $24,822 -- an increase of 351.1%. During the same time period inflation, as measured by the December CPI-U, increased 398.49%.

Likewise, the MA maximum increased from $11,539 in 1970 to $44,628 in 1996, an increase of 386.76%, which also was less than the rate of inflation.

An analysis of benchmarks shows that teachers have less purchasing power today than they did in 1970.

Twenty Five Year Average Teacher Salary Analysis

Average teacher salaries in Wisconsin increased from $9,729 in 1970, to $38,950(1) in 1996-1997. This represents an increase of 400.34%, an increase slightly greater than inflation (398.49%).

Average teacher salaries reflect increases for advanced credits and seniority. Wisconsin’s teaching corps is maturing, and one-half of Wisconsin’s teachers have MAs. The average teacher has 17 years of experience. Even with these increases factored in, it took teachers 26 years to gain 1.85% in purchasing power as measured by average teacher salaries.

Teachers Have Lost Money Since 1990

Six Year Benchmark Analysis

In 1990, the average of the six benchmarks statewide was $30,473. In 1996 the average benchmark was $36,108--an increase of 18.49%. However, as measured by the December CPI-U, inflation increase 18.54% during the same time period.

Six Year Average Teacher Salary Analysis

Since 1990-1991, average teacher salaries increased 17.29% while the CPI-U increased 18.54%.

Teachers Have Lost Money Since 1993 and The QEO

Three Year Benchmark Analysis

Since the implementation of the QEO in 1993, statewide benchmarks have increased an average of 1.68% per year. Inflation during the same time period averaged about 2.9%. Teacher salary schedules lost purchasing power after implementation of the QEO. In the three years prior to the QEO, the average annual rate of increase in benchmarks was 4.82%.

Three Year Average Teacher Salary Analysis

The average teachers’ salary has only increased by 2.03% annually since 1993. Again, this rate was less than inflation which averaged 2.9% annually between December of 1993 and 1996. In the three years prior to the QEO, average teacher salaries increased at an average annual rate of 3.88%

Summation

Benchmark analysis shows that salary schedules have not kept pace with inflation over the last 25 years. Nor have they kept pace with inflation since the implementation of the QEO in 1993.

Further, average teacher salaries, which include longevity and credit advancements, show that teacher pay barely out-paced inflation over the last 25 years. The increases in average teacher salaries were due to advanced credits and seniority.

However, in the last ten years, average teacher salaries have lost money compared to inflation.

In the last three years, neither average salaries or benchmark salaries have kept up with the rate of inflation.

In fact, compared to inflation, average teacher salaries have lost money:

• In five out of the last seven years
• In the last ten years between 1986 and 1996
• In the last six years between 1990 and 1996
• In the last three years since 1993 when the QEO was implemented.

As measured by benchmarks, teacher salaries have lost money compared to inflation when 25 year, six year, and three year analyses are conducted.

While certain limited “snapshots” in time can be used to depict salary increases which are greater than inflation, these snapshots fail to address the larger fact that most time-frames of analysis show virtually no gain in teacher earnings compared to inflation. Clearly, teacher salaries are not growing at exorbitant rates, but, rather, barely stayed even with or slowly lost purchasing power through time. Since 1993 and the QEO, teachers have experienced an intensified loss of purchasing power.

Total Compensation Should Not Be Compared To The CPI-U

WASB: Total package compensation (benefits + salary) needs to be used in cost of living comparisons.

RESPONSE: FALSE. The calculation used to determine the CPI does not include health insurance premiums. The WASB’s methodology creates an “apples to oranges” comparison where costs are being added to teachers’ compensation and then compared to an economic indicator which does not include the same costs. Also, no other standard measure of income, such as per capita income or median household income, include benefits in the calculation. The WASB maintains that teacher salaries should be analyzed in a different manner than all other standards of income analysis.

Maintaining The Same Level of Benefits Is Not An Increase In Compensation

Further, an increase in the cost of benefits does not increase take-home pay. If an employee had a family health insurance plan in 1985 and by 1995 the cost for that plan exceeded inflation, the employee received no additional benefit -- they simply maintained the status quo. It is not reasonable to blame exorbitant health care costs, the result of a complex market system, on employees who simply wish to maintain health insurance for their families.

(1) Estimated figure--final data will be available by November of 1997.