Now before anyone says I am teacher bashing, I am NOT

WOW … it’s a long time since I’ve been here, but I’m back today.

 

BC classrooms now empty in dispute
between BCTF and the BC government

I thought I would do a little exercise with regards to wages and salaries in BC, and try putting teacher’s pay in perspective. I have had to do what I believe to be a fairly accurate calculation on an hourly wage for teachers (as noted in my calculations below), but any teachers / friends are welcome to correct me.

 

Let’s start with Statistics Canada, which states the ‘average’ teacher’s salary in BC is $64,131 per year.

 

I then went to the BC Stats website to look at a long list of wages and salaries in BC http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/LabourIncome/Earnings/WageSalarySurvey/WageSalarySurveySearch.aspx).  Here are a number of professional, career, and industrial careers … and the hourly wage paid.  The numbers quoted below are for the most frequently page wage (not the lowest or highest).  Pease note I am not saying these jobs are equal to what a teacher does, only that most have a combination that includes a combination (any or all) of the following … training / education, responsibility for safety, professionalism, and legal obligations.

 

Community and Social Service Worker: $18.83

Post-Secondary Teaching and Research Assistant:  $22.08
Automotive Service Technician / Truck and Bus Mechanics: $25.67
Welders and Related Machine Operators: $27.91
Electrician: $27.03
Financial Auditors and Accountants: $29.32
Heavy Duty Equipment Mechanic: $30.85
Computer Programmer and Information Systems Managers:  $30.92
Insurance, Real Estate and Financial Brokerage ‘Managers’: $36.32
Registered Nurses: $36.59
Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management: $36.73
Business Development Officers: $37.91
Senior Managers (Goods Production, Utilities, Transportation, and Construction): $39.49

And now … back to BC teachers:

52 weeks – 8 weeks off for Summer = 44 weeks

44 weeks – 3 (Christmas, Spring Break, Easter) = 41 weeks
41 weeks multiplied by 5 work days per week = 205 days
205 days – 3 stats (BC Day, May Day, and Remembrance Day – others already in above days not worked) = 202

Again, this is just a ballpark figure, so the figure of 202 days worked per year is my calculation based on the above.  Please note it also does not include the non-instruction days off which used to be called Professional Development days)

Let’s say the teaching / classroom time per day is 6 hours; from there let’s add 45 minutes on the front end (at school) for prep, and 45 at the end (at school) to wrap-up the day – we now have 7.5 hours per day.  I’m just guessing, but for each day ‘worked’ I’m going to add another 1.5 hours at home for prep and marking; we now have 9 hours per day.

202 instructional days times 9 hours per day equals a total of 1818 hours worked.

The average salary, paid to BC teachers, of $64,131 divided by 1818 equals $35.27 per hour … that seems not bad to me given the above noted salaries, and before the current salary offer is added in to the equation. 

Now before anyone says I am teacher bashing, I am NOT.  I am simply saying that the salary they receive, is a good one.  In other words, the raise being offered by the BC Government is more than generous!

The government is NOT off the hook however; more money does need to go into classrooms so there can be better services delivered to students … especially those with special needs.  That is NOT however something I believe is a part of contract negotiations, that is something that each of us as parents need to demand of government.

These just my thoughts … what do you think?