School Bus Drivers Gets Check for $0.00, After Deductions

Don Schmidt had to quit his job as a school bus driver because he couldn’t afford it anymore.

It was one thing when he got a paycheck for $0.00, after deductions, but when he was told he probably would have to pay the district $20 to $30 every pay period to work there in the future, “That was the real kick in the teeth,” he said. “It’s a crime, really.”

In some ways, Schmidt was in a unique position, but in many ways he wasn’t.

Rising health insurance costs are one of the main culprits, and those affect all employees. They are beginning to hit teachers extremely hard because the teacher bargaining law, called the QEO, has a built-in trade-off between salary and benefits. As health insurance costs go up, there is less money available for salary increases.

Although the QEO (Qualified Economic Offer) law does not apply directly to education support professionals such as school bus drivers, its impact spills over into their contract negotiations.
Then there’s the fact that support professionals traditionally have difficulty winning the respect and pay they deserve from school districts. That problem has been greatly compounded by the impact of school district revenue controls, which rob districts of money they need for programs, services, and staff pay.

The combination of these factors – rising health insurance costs, the QEO law, school district revenue controls, and poor pay – make situations such as Schmidt’s far too common.

Schmidt, who was chief negotiator for his support staff unit in the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District, said some of his former colleagues continue to receive paychecks for virtually nothing, after deductions. He has seen other checks for as little as 20 cents and 50 cents.

“And this isn’t just a Wittenberg-Birnamwood problem,” he said. “All school districts are having the same problem.”

Schmidt, who is retired from the former Harnischfeger Corp. in Milwaukee, took the bus driving job primarily because he needed insurance for himself and his wife. But he didn’t expect to work for free to get it.

His paycheck situation was exacerbated by the fact he worked half-time (20 hours a week), and the school district has one of the best, most comprehensive insurance plans available, through WEA Insurance. Deductions are somewhat higher, too, because a full year’s worth is paid over nine months of employment.

The contract between the union and school board ties insurance premiums to the number of hours worked. The school district pays only about 32% of Schmidt’s insurance premiums, although it pays 90% for teachers.

Schmidt was paid $8.80 per hour, which came to $352 for 40 hours of work. For the April two-week pay period for which the district wrote him the check for $0.00, Schmidt had a $353.98 deduction for his two-week health insurance premium, so he actually owed the district money. Because he subscribes to a flex plan for his insurance premiums, taxes are not an issue – no income, no taxes. However, there were additional deductions for Social Security, life insurance, Medicare and union dues.

And the future looked bleak.

“Health insurance went up 15% my first year here, and 20% last year,” he said. “When you’re only getting a 2% to 3% raise, it’s hard to keep up.”

Schmidt argued strenuously during contract negotiations that the district should pay 50% of the insurance premium for half-time employees such as himself, although even that would leave him with little or no take-home pay.

“I had four checks that totalled $2, and I threw them at the president of the school board and told him, ‘Here, maybe you can buy a bottle of beer,’ ” he said.

Schmidt now works as a bus driver for Marathon County. Although he gets paid less – $7.40 per hour – and has to drive a half hour each way to work, he ends up with anywhere from $125 to $200 in take-home pay because the county pays a greater share of insurance.

Meanwhile, Schmidt’s former colleagues in Wittenberg-Birnamwood – bus drivers, cooks, teacher aides and custodians – are still negotiating a contract for 2001-03. The main stumbling block is insurance coverage.

“We want them to raise their share to at least 41%, but people like me would be in the same boat because insurance went up 20%,” he said. “I told them they should stop advertising these jobs as having pay and benefits. It should be pay or benefits.”

Resource page on the QEO law

Posted November 30, 2001