A new report by Sylvia Allegretto at IRLE and Lawrence Mishell at EPI finds that in 2015, public school teachers’ weekly wages were 17% lower than those of comparable workers (a gap that has widened from 1.8% in 1994).
There are many reasons for the pay gap between public school teachers and similarly-educated workers, including the same gender pay gap that affects workers throughout the public and private sectors. But there’s no doubt that the widening gap between teachers and other college educated workers is a direct consequence of our rapid disinvestment in public services, which has hit school districts harder than any other segment of the public workforce. I’d be interested to see a similar study of other public workers and their similarly-situated private counterparts.