Teachers & Educators: Don’t be Self-Haters

A self-hater is someone who can’t believe that they make a decent salary for the work that they do.  You know that type of person.  They frequently say, “I can’t believe that I make over $100,000 teaching and I will actually have a pension when I retire”.  Don’t fall into this trap, unless you’re driving home to your mansion.  We as teachers are the pillars of the middle class and we must advocate for one another.  If we can’t advocate for ourselves, don’t expect others to.

Your salary and benefits are earned.  It takes most people over ten years with many credits beyond their master’s degree to get there.  If you work a private-sector job for the same company for more than ten years with similar educational qualifications, you will probably be making more than $100,000 and in some instances a lot more.

Oh but we only work 180 days a year wherein the private sector they have to work about 210-230 days.  That extra six-eight weeks’ vacation is also well earned.  Let’s not forget that when you are teaching children it’s like performing and can be very exhausting and mentally taxing.  People that don’t teach for a living are usually dealing with people on a one-to-one basis and in the nice confines of an office.  Being in front of 25-35 kids requires a tremendous amount of energy and effort and as a result, a teachers ‘ ”battery” will need a little more recharging.

“Oh, but your pension is outrageous”.    The pensions of teachers and other public employees in NYS have been getting cut since the 1970s.  That’s why we now have six different pension tiers, each with a reduction in benefits for each successive tier, with the exception of Tier IV.  It’s true that the employer contributions to the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System can be as high as 16% of your salary (occurred in 2013) but let’s not forget why it got that high.  The financial crisis that lead to our employer contributions spiking from about 6% to 16% was due to Wall St. selling and marketing of financial time bombs that were bought by unsuspecting public pension funds which created a loss of about 35% to our pension system.  These products were marketed as AAA-rated.  Many of the sellers of these destructive securities knew their prices would drop soon after the sale and they made immense fortunes as a result.  Yes, the same people that sold these toxic assets to our pension funds turned around and bet that their prices would fall (it’s called a short sale).

Dick Iannuzzi once told me a story about a Long Island education forum that he and Walter Dunn (retired president of East Islip Teachers Association) attended in the mid-’80s.  Part of the forum had to do with a Newsday headline, “The $60,000 Teacher”.  The author of the article was John Hildebrand and he was ranting about teachers’ salaries.  When asked about teacher salaries, Walter Dunn responded, “You hated us when we made $20,000 but it sure feels better at $60,000.” Many of these same people will only like you if you work for free.

Many times we as union members can be our own worst enemy.  For example, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker actually received 35% of union member’s votes.  These votes were for a person who wants to destroy unions and the benefits that come from being a member.  It’s only a matter of time that those self-haters of Wisconsin become loved again – but for a lot less money.

If you want to put the money that you do make to work for you just contact me.