[djoldman]

Folks may talk past each other on this.

Some people may say that nurses and teachers ARE NOT well-paid because those workers deserve to be paid more than they are.

Some people may say that nurses and teachers ARE well-paid because they are generally paid more than median wage.

As for some dry facts, median wages:

  Registered Nurse $93,600

  Public School Teacher $64,000

  Private School Teacher $57,600

  All U.S. Occupations $49,500

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/occupation-finder.htm

[tptacek]

Complexifiers for teaching: K12 cash comp in major population centers (CPS, SFUSD, Philly, MSP, &c) is sharply higher than that median, and, more importantly, teachers get a huge amount of non-cash comp. Can't say enough how valuable a defined-benefit pension is. All-in comp for a lot of rank-and-file K12 teachers in major metros is competitive with software development (in those regions; obviously excluding SFUSD).

[djoldman]

Oh for sure. Many people are surprised to learn how much more public teachers make than private teachers :)

A ton of details that medians aren't showing.

I was just mentioning why folks may be on different sides here. We should at least be talking about the same thing.

If it's a "they deserve" conversation, that's very different than others.

[tptacek]

I think people can reasonably go back and forth about whether they should be more compensated, but I don't think there's a reasonable conversation to have about teaching not being a well-compensated career path. I know this surprises a lot of people.

(My mom is a retired CPS teacher.)

[djoldman]

I assume the CTU came up a lot at the dinner table, haha.

Shrug clearly teachers are paid more than the median wage. There isn't much to argue there.

Modeling wage/salary is pretty straightforward for the majority of jobs (weighted by number of people working the job). There really aren't too many surprises.

Monopoly/Oligopoly union power, licensing, labor supply, regulatory/compliance restrictions/barriers, and product/service output value are pretty much most of it?

[tptacek]

Hell if I know. This thread is based on a claim that people go into nursing and teaching out of altruism, and not for compensation. I'm pretty sure that's not true. Both are well-compensated, safe paths to a comfortable lifestyle and, especially for teaching, to a secure retirement.

No teacher is going to tell you they're not altruistic, and that they're in it for the money. They see themselves as doing good, and I agree that they are. But that's not what drives entrance into those fields.

[hoppyhoppy2]

Many teachers need a masters degree, which is much less true of the average worker.

[tptacek]

Nah, that argument isn't going to get us anywhere: big school districts actually have incentive plans to get teachers masters degrees. New teachers don't need them, the district will reimburse some amount of tuition, and set you up with tuition discounts at partner universities. Once you have the masters, you get a significant pay bump. The masters situation with K12 education is a benefit more than it is a cost.