To take part in discussions on talkSFU, please apply for membership (SFU email id required).

Salary is a JOKE

edited November 2007 in General
Teaching has become a joke of a salary especially since there was a time not that long ago that teachers and police officer got paid a similar wage. It was fair that both were evenly paid even though teaching required 5 years of university since police officers worked shift work and had a more dangerous job. Now many teachers look at their pay cheque and then look at the pay of police officers and the cost of university and ask how did our union let this happen?

Today the salary difference is total bullshit. A police officer will make $70,000 in 3 years of working and a teacher will only make around $45,000. Many police officers get overtime and will make more than $70,000 after three years while teachers work overtime PRO BONO(For Free)!

You will not find any police office now who will quit to become a teacher but there are many teachers who are thinking about quitting and becoming a police officer. The police forces are advertising in teacher publications because they know the money difference so attractive.

This new five year teacher contract does not keep up with the real inflation; especially in the Lower Mainland and Southern Vancouver Island. Our union has failed in bargaining for the last fifteen years resulting in a huge difference in pay compared to other professions.

The only job in teaching that compares monetarily to a police officer is a job at the BCTF where the lucky teachers who get hired start at $82,000.

Teachers didn't vote yes because they liked this contract but because they had already lost thousands of dollars striking and they had lost any confidence our union would get a penny more than the government wanted to give us. The strike basically paid for our bonus and the rest didn't even keep up with real inflation. The government ended up the winners and teachers like the last fifteen years the losers.

Comments

  • edited February 2007
    Well, if their whole intention was to get a high salary, then why don't those teachers go into the financial industry. They pay great there.
  • edited February 2007
    I'm becoming a teacher and it has NOTHING to do with the salary. Naturally I want a salary that is adequate to support my family, but I'm not going into teaching for the money.

    The volunteer work I do is a heck of a lot more difficult than any job I've worked in the past... and I don't get paid a cent! But it is extremely rewarding and makes a big difference for the kids. Teaching is like that for me as well. It is not about the money, but the difference you make.
  • edited February 2007
    that my friend is the beauty of politics.. the government is always in a win win situation.. provided they don't do stupid things that is.. =) oh.. the irony..
  • edited February 2007
    Malakaiii said:
    I'm becoming a teacher and it has NOTHING to do with the salary. Naturally I want a salary that is adequate to support my family, but I'm not going into teaching for the money.

    The volunteer work I do is a heck of a lot more difficult than any job I've worked in the past... and I don't get paid a cent! But it is extremely rewarding and makes a big difference for the kids. Teaching is like that for me as well. It is not about the money, but the difference you make.
    Yeah, exactly. It is interesting to see that many people in university are working so hard for a piece of paper in the hopes of earning a fortune. However, if your main purpose is wanting to earn a fortune, then I don't see how a job can be sufficient to make a fortune!

    I have TAs asking the class why you should go for masters. Number 1 reason he brought up: higher salary. Salary = job = limited growth = no fortune.

    However, I have total respect for those people that are doing the things that they believe in and not for monetary incentives. Even the people in business has to realize this, the main purpose of business isn't about earning money, its about building relationships and creating new things to serve people's needs better. If all people can think about is money, the chances are they won't even get to see it; however, if you are out to accomplish a mission, say.. revolutionizing the coffee industry, then you will see LOTs of money. Mr. Schultz accomplished that.. and I really doubt when he started it was about money.
  • edited February 2007
    Unfortunately if you compare the salary of teachers to those of workers in the private sector (with a similar amount of education), teachers are still much better off. Unions were originally meant to maintain a safe work environment and secure decent wages. However, no one listens when someone in the private sector walks off the job. They just get fired.
  • edited November 2007
    Teachers are highly underpaid - they make the same amount as an uneducated retail manager (not that that's bad)...but it's like why all the education when there's people out there without it living the same life? It's ridiculous.
  • edited November 2007
    In Canada they tend to be fairly well-paid. It's the teachers down in the USA that really get dumped on. It's amazing how many people have the knives out for teachers when parents are effectively getting government-subsidized babysitters that gladly teach their children how to act like human beings who don't dribble on the tablecloth, while the parental units are out working or taking care of household duties.

    This sort of attitude problem about schoolteachers, plus the government's habit of making teaching a political football, is why I decided not to teach in high school, and am now aiming for my Ph. D to teach in a college or university.
  • edited November 2007
    I agree that teachers should be paid more. The plus side of being a teacher here is that you get ~12 weeks off per year (summer, christmas, spring break), correct? For many people, quality time off is important. Some teachers do other work in the summer (e.g. teach summer school).
  • edited November 2007
    I get paid salary to go to school.
  • edited November 2007
    god teachers bitch wayyyy too much
    so much bloody time off

    oh man, having what, 3 months off a year to get 60k or w.e it is is such hard work.
    i can see the higher grades bitching, since they gotta mark and crap, but kindergarten to grade 5 there is hardly any marking, lol.

Leave a Comment