The headline in last week’s issue read: “Underpaid: All area school districts fall below the state’s $47K average teacher salary.”
It’s true. So we run it.
But something bothers me about it.
It’s not the fact a dozen area school districts aren’t keeping up with state teacher pay. What rubs me wrong is that it might be sour grapes. I’ve heard this claim time and again. And don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for teachers. My wife and I have three children in Springfield Public Schools, and the quality of education is only rivaled by the meaningful relationships formed with the teachers. They care and they’re qualified and they should earn average or above pay.
But why is it always schoolteachers?
Yes, I know, they run a classroom with dozens of little people encircling them every day. But that’s what they’re trained for and what they’ve signed on for.
Maybe I’m too much of a realist, but we know what we’re getting into when we enter a field of study or area of employment. And I’m going to work as hard for $20,000 as I am for $100,000, which is to say I’m always striving to do my best, in part, because I’m getting paid for exactly that. Maybe that’s the idealist in me, and maybe many aren’t wired that way.
I was trained by former editors to throw doubt on the phrase, “I don’t do it for the money.” Yes, you do. We all do it for the money at some level. If that cliche was true, we’d be telling our employers, “Keep the paychecks. I don’t do it for the money.”
Maybe what people mean by that is the money’s not their strongest motivation. I can relate to that. But my family needs a roof over their heads and food on the table. So I go to work for a paycheck to serve my family as their provider and protector. It actually works out nicely – so-called underpaid or overpaid – to live within our means.
Enough about me. How about that $47,410 average teacher salary in Missouri? In Springfield, it’s $46,238 per year.
This week, I discovered another key job in our city averaging that amount. Police patrol officers earn $47,573 on average, according to Salary.com. At the Springfield Police Department, the salary range for an officer is $16.57-$28.35 per hour, or $34,465-$58,968.
So who should be paid a better average: a schoolteacher or a police officer?
Gosh, how do you answer that?
We’re talking about the future of our society now in the palm of their hands.
We’re talking about the current protection of our city for future growth and development.
We certainly need both (unless you’re an advocate for the virtues of homeschooling, but that’s another column).
My gut says the officer should be paid more because of the greater risk involved. It’s life or death at times.
My point is there’s always another perspective to change a position on something. I never would have guessed policemen and teachers were such equals in pay. Now that I know, it doesn’t make teachers seem underpaid to me. It affirms my uneasiness with the whole claim of underpaid – or overpaid, for that matter.
Where does it stop? Can’t any industry make good arguments for higher pay – and point the finger at those overpaid industries?
Journalists have said the same thing: too demanding and too consuming work for too little pay. To be sure, it’s cost the industry, locally and nationally, some of the best journalistic talent we’ve known. At some point, that offer in public relations, marketing or striking out on their own becomes too good to pass up.
So whether it’s too little or too much money, there’s still work to be done. There’s a game to play. There are wins and losses, first places and the other places. Yes, at work.
On the topic of winning, I recently heard world champion figure skater Scott Hamilton say on Donald Miller’s “Storybrand” podcast that the key is outworking the competition. Hamilton boils winning down to commitment and repetition. “It’s showing up every day,” he says.
Be a winner no matter the salary level. Why? It really pays.
Springfield Business Journal Editorial Director Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.
