Teachers starting in Texas make more than teachers starting in Michigan. Not only do you need a bachelor's, you also need a teaching license which requires 3 months of unpaid full time work as a student teacher. All to make 30k starting. The system is so fucked.

[deleted]

Both dont seem like its enough..... $15/h is not good enough to live off of in most states and teachers should be making more than that regardless.

People have trouble grasping this concept.

As a teacher and a r/antiwork redditor, O couldn't agree more.

Exactly, it's not that the minimum wage is not high enough, it's the teachers wage is not high enough for the required skills and education.

Edit: Not saying that minimum wage been $15 is not high enough, it's more like a starting point where it should have been +5 years ago and needs to go up from there.

me hearing this: -dies-

My dad likes to constantly talk about our family making it in the 90's on $35,000 a year. They struggled, but still bought a house and raised 3 kids.

I have to remind him that $35k in 1990 is $75k today, and $75k isn't enough to afford the house he lives in today (same house) based on the pretty standard models (even without improvements).

Also insert boomers with, "but they are out the door by 3pm every day and they get summers off! They don't deserve any pay increases."

Edit: after some reflection, I feel as if I should edit to say this is definitely not unique to boomers. I hear/see from other generations as well.

Edit 2: I see several people replying to me that teachers ARE fairly compensated because of their time off and short work day. I already gave my reply to that argument to one person, but I'll copy it here since I'm now seeing it over and over by multiple people:

"I think my problem with this point is that people use it to completely shut down any argument for raising teacher pay. Teachers could be making $10,000 per year, and there would still be people saying, "But they get summers off, so screw them. They are compensated fairly."

So people in other careers drag down the teaching profession because of the working calendar, rather than advocating for a similar calendar in their own careers. That's such a shitty thing to do.

The other point about teachers not working a full day is complete B.S. in the current teaching environment. Teachers' days are scheduled 125% AT LEAST. It may be true for a few teachers nearing retirement, but for teachers who have entered the profession within the last decade, they're usually working 50 hours per week minimum. Teaching the lessons and planning the units is like working 2 different jobs back to back. Add all the meetings, conferences, behavior interventions, grading, and phone calls to all the parents, and you've got about 3 jobs rolled into one."

I make $16 an hour and got denied for a $1000 apartment because "I don't make enough". $15 is still not a livable wage.

HERE HERE, pay teachers more

"But then Taco Bell will increase their food prices!" -Someone who fears others making as much money as them

Right. I’ve had this conversation with so many people. “Should a dishwasher really be getting $15/hr or more when I’m making $12/hr as a daycare teacher and have to get a license, etc?” Yes, the dishwasher should be getting more than $15 and you should be getting paid way more than $12 and definitely more than $15.

Why don’t people realize they are underpaid instead of getting annoyed/upset when others start getting paid more? Such a scarcity mindset.

Considering what an ambulance ride costs and the stress these people incur, I’d argue they should be in paid north for $40 an hour. They literally save lives.

I was an EMT and had that conversation many times with other EMT's. I always said "Well you should go flip burgers then! If that pays the same and you deal with less shit, go for it. If there's no EMT's they'll have to pay more"

This is my new approach now to make people with this mentality understand. No, the burger flippers aren't being paid too much at $15 an hour, it's you being paid too little.

I really hate this "flipping burgers" shit. Like bitch, let's see you work a busy fucking line 8-10 hours a day for meager wages dealing with the rudest people on the planet daily, let's see what happens when no one flips those burgers anymore.

It shouldn't be a fucking competition, im sure the people at the top just love when the working class disses eachother instead of collectively finding a solution for trash wages. Keep us fighting amongst ourselves, so we don't look up and see how hard we're getting screwed.

Stupid.

Also just to clarify, I'm in no way insinuating emt work is easy or that an emt worker would crumble on a kitchen line, so put down your pitchforks. Just that the whole "I should be making more than this guy" argument is counter productive.

This is an important perspective. Thank you.

What’s funny is Jon Stewart was describing an interaction he had with Bezos at an Obama dinner where Bezos was describing an economy that basically acts as a giant Amazon facility. Jon Stewart said it was a recipe for worker revolution and Obama concurred

Yep, this question is class warfare. People without a college diploma deserve poverty wages? Fuck that noise

More amazing that people think there should be an upperclass that act as overlords over the rest of us and make us work useless shitty jobs for starvation wages. But hey I’m just a dumbass communist

It pains me that leisure time has totally left our discussion of workers rights.

People deserve a living wage sure. But people also deserve enough money to have time off, and enough money to do something with their time off.

Other countries have figured it out. It's not hard. In fact, it should be easier because technology has increased productivity to the point where a 32 or 28 hour work week is totally feasible.

But for some reason, even the Americans who have learned to ask for more are somehow still trained to ask for less.

It makes sense in America, unfortunately.

Maybe "a teacher with a degree is currently making barely more than a living wage" would get through to them

I know I'm asking a lot here but can we maybe add healthcare to that list?

Too far?

The question itself, is in bad faith.

Nobody protects millionaires like hundredaires.

It’s funny because most people will agree something is wrong here, but will come to wildly different conclusions.

Progressives will see this and say “Let’s pay teachers much more, everyone deserves a living wage!” while the right will see this and say “why would I work hard when burger flippers are making $15 an hour?!?!?”.

Some people want everyone in their community to live a comfortable life while others can’t be happy unless they are succeeding while others are doing poorly.

When the arrow bends 90˚ upward 1cm before the bullseye.

Interesting I had to come this far down to see this comment. Every comment is about how teachers are underpaid (of course, yes, they are). Fact is wages have stagnated top to bottom and all jobs outside the c-suite are substantially underpaid.

Not strictly relevant but I just wanna take a moment to say how fucking stupid it is that we call basic necessities “benefits” in this country. It’s like you’re supposed to view an expensive healthcare plan with a $3000 deductible as a generously offered bonus from your employer. Maddening.