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Down and Out: Economists Assess the Teacher Pay Disadvantage

Sylvia A. Allegretto PhD., Center for Work and Employment Dynamics, at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, UC Berkeley
Sean P. Corcoran PhD., Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, New York University
Lawrence Mishel PhD., Economic Policy Institute

Article comments

The California Public Employee Relations Program (CPER), at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California-Berkeley, provides nonpartisan information to those involved in employer-employee relations in the public sector. For more information, visit http://cper.berkeley.edu.

Abstract

As public employees, elementary and secondary school teachers have the enormous responsibility of educating our youth, and much hinges on their success. Teacher quality is the most important input schools contribute to the academic success of their students. The ability of school officials to recruit and retain highly effective classroom teachers is a struggle in many school districts throughout the United States. For decades now, a small and declining fraction of the most cognitively skilled graduates choose to become teachers, while rigorous national standards and school-based accountability for student performance have pushed the demand for talented teachers to an all-time high.

Prolific career opportunities have made it increasingly difficult to attract the best and the brightest into the profession. Professional women, historically afforded limited choices outside of teaching, have increasingly diverse career prospects. Attractive pay and compensation structures are part of the appeal of these ever-expanding opportunities. For this reason, it is important to ask whether teacher pay has kept up with that of other professions available to college graduates today. This article presents empirical evidence from several sources that documents relative teacher pay in a present and historical context.

Subject Area

Contracts, Economics, Education Law, Employment Practice, Government Contracts, Labor Law, Law and Economics, Law and Society, Politics

Recommended Citation

Sylvia A. Allegretto PhD., Sean P. Corcoran PhD., and Lawrence Mishel PhD., "Down and Out: Economists Assess the Teacher Pay Disadvantage" (February 2008). California Public Employee Relations (CPER) Papers. CPER Selected Publications. Working Paper 21.
http://law.bepress.com/cperselect/papers/art21

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