“As our educators seek greater compensation, we have repeatedly witnessed teacher strikes across our nation.
When a teacher chose to participate in the discussion, she made her salary public by sharing her pay stub. And it created a lot of commotion.
Elisabeth Coate Milich took a risk that most people would not. The Arizona schoolteacher chose to share her pay stub on social media to raise awareness about the compensation teachers receive in a nation where people don’t usually discuss their finances and income in public.
Despite the extensive education needed to become a teacher, Milich wanted to demonstrate that she and her coworkers do not earn a living income. Milich’s Facebook post revealed that she only received a $131 rise in a year since her income increased from $35,490 to $35,621, according to TODAY, even though it was taken down due to the overwhelming negative comments she received.
“When I saw the old salary versus the new one, I actually laughed,” Milich stated in her post.
Does this require a college degree? I am aware that I don’t earn much money, yet when
In black and white, I see it. I think, “Wow!” I mean, I really enjoy teaching, but you can’t live on it when you see how much it pays.
As reported by CBS News, Milich, a longtime educator who teaches second grade at Phoenix’s Whispering Wind Academy, says she contemplated posting her paycheck. She ultimately made the decision to illustrate what a teaching wage in her state actually looks like, but Milich’s image is more depressing than most.
Even though public school teachers in Arizona are among the lowest paid in the country, their average pay is not $35,621, as shown on Milich’s pay stub.
Although the average income is $47,218 instead, it is still low when compared to the national average of $58,353 annually, as reported by the National Education Association.
She took sure to note that teachers are frequently left to pay for student materials like markers and tape without receiving payment, even if those figures sound far better than what Milich’s photo conveyed. Meanwhile, twenty years after graduating from college, she is still repaying her student loans.
Since some of her colleagues educators aren’t as fortunate as she is to have a second source of income, Milich claims that she would be in serious trouble if it weren’t for her husband’s pay. Milich clarified, “My teacher friends with whom I work work three or four jobs to make ends meet.” “I know kindergarten teachers who work all day and then go work as waitresses at Applebee’s,” she continued.
Studies seem to support her assertion that teaching is becoming an unsustainable career. “If you are a single person trying to make it on what we make, you couldn’t do it,” she said. Actually, a 2017 study conducted by Arizona State University’s
According to the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, Arizona’s teacher recruitment and retention rates are at “crisis” levels. Arizona’s elementary school teachers earn the lowest wages in the nation, according to the survey, and 42% of teachers hired in 2013 quit their jobs within three years.
