Why?

As many of you know, I am in my third year of teaching.  Due to a variety of cuts in our pay, benefits and other bonuses, his year I am bringing home less money each month than I made as a first-year teacher (before I had my MA degree).  The outlook for next year is even more grim.

Yet, on a regular basis I read and hear comments from a variety of different types of people (including students) that public school teachers are lazy, over-paid, and spoiled. 

I have indignantly and self-righteously refuted these baseless claims for three years now, knowing full well how many hours, vacations, holidays and my own funds I have put in to doing this job well.  But, teaching is a deceptive creature and I am starting to wonder how the work that I put into my job compares with that of other jobs.  Hence, the format of this blog is changing, or just becoming more inclusive (yay BTSA vocab!).

To start, here is my income as a third-year teacher, including a break down of what that pay includes and does not include.

Annual Salary for 2009/2010:  $45,455
Master's Stipend (Annual):  $2,089
Annual Gross Salary for 2009/2010:  $47,544

This is based on 182 days of work.  By contract, 1 day of work is 6.5 hours (7:30 - 2:30, with a 30 un-paid lunch).

This comes out to $261.23 for every 1 day (or 6.5 hours) at work.  This is an hourly wage of $40.19...again, according to the contract.

Other details:

• Teachers are not paid for our coveted "vacations", like Winter Break, Spring Break, or Summer Break.
• We are paid for the 7 standard government holidays that occur during our work year.
• We do not get the standard paid 15-minute breaks, nor do we get overtime, holiday pay, or time-and-a-half.