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More Pot Stirring
September 04, 2012 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at 06:24 AM
With the debate raging in Ontario about teacher compensation, this column by Jay Greene is very timely. Are teachers fairly compensated? Dr. Greene starts with the following premise.
- If teachers are underpaid relative to their skills, teachers who leave the profession should, on average, earn more in their new jobs. Likewise, new workers coming into teaching should, on average, take a pay cut from their previous jobs.
Dr. Greene found that “individuals get an average salary increase of 8.8 percent when they enter the teaching profession and a pay cut of around 3.1 percent when they leave”.
The argument is a bit more layered - read the article for more context - but the bottom line is that perhaps US public school teachers are already being paid too much. Given that Ontario teacher salaries are significantly higher than the US average, it would be reasonable to wonder whether Ontario teachers are already being paid too much as well.
Background concerning Greene’s article.
http://educationnext.org/the-compensation-question/
If using the economists line of thinking, and models, it would be of interest, to see what the Canada data shows.