From: davidc@montagar.com (David L. Cathey)
Newsgroups: tx.politics
Subject: Re: Teacher Pay Redux
Date: 15 Oct 92 09:48:34 GMT
Distribution: tx
Organization: Montagar Software Concepts, Plano TX

In article <exuptr.761.719097746@exu.ericsson.se>, exuptr@exu.ericsson.se (Patrick Taylor) writes:
> In article <1992Oct11.183636.16838@montagar.com> davidc@montagar.com (David L. Cathey) writes:
>>In article <21703@rpp386.lonestar.org>, jfh@rpp386.lonestar.org (John F. Haugh II) writes:
>>> This is from the Libertarian Party News, a newspaper from the Libertarian
>>> Party.
>>> 
>>> Writing about the continuing growth in public payrolls -
>>> 
>>>       Volume 7, no. 10, pg. 11
>>> 
>>>                           ... Admittedly, public wages are
>>>        inflated by the high number of professionals like teachers.
>>>        Yet public school teachers' average wages and benefits
>>                                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>>        have hit $34.45 an hour, ...
>>                         ^^^^^^^ 
>>> 
>>> Ho-hum-de-dum.  Adjusted for a full 52-week work year, that means the
>>> total compensation for teachers is $71,656 ...
> 
>>        Whoa, let's take a reality check!  Creative math, John!  That assumes
>>they work 2080 hours/year (40 hours per week for all 52 weeks of the year). 
> 
> Uh, 'scuze me, I think he said "adjusted for q full 52-week work-year"...

	He did.  $34.45/hr * 40 hours/week * 52 weeks/year.  But you can't take
a salary, figure what the hourly rate is, then assume you can multiply by
2080 hours to get annual income.  The figures that he is using are for a salary
and hours worked adjusted to an hourly wage.  He is trying to skew the numbers
back the other way, and not very well.  Also, the "hourly" figure was dollar
value of wages AND benefits, so they really wouldn't see $71,656 on their W-2
even if John was right.

	Try this:  You make $50,000/year and have 2 weeks vacation/year.  You
work for 2,000 hours/year (40 hours by 50 weeks), so you make an "hourly" wage
of $25/hour.  John thinks that you can multiple by 40 hours by 52 weeks, and
you get $52,000/year. Wow, in just one simple equation, you got a non-existent
$2,000/year raise. Try that with a 9-month employee, and you can see how skewed
Johns number are (And John, I *KNOW* you just hate skewed numbers...).

> Which leads to the next question:  are teachers paid for summer-school time?
> Of course, they can take another summer job, also.  Which means they
> are probably making more than you figure, although it doesn't all come from
> their primary work...

	Sometimes, but the salaried are averaged over a 12 month period.
Some are under contract, and only get paid during the school year.  It doesn't
matter, since they are only paid for 9-months of actual work time, the salary
is just averaged out, as if it was a paid three-month vacation.  They don't
have to do this, but it is more convenient for the teacher to budget themselves
with a constant paycheck.

	Some do get summer jobs, teaching summer school, but remember that the
KIDS are out of school (high school and college) looking for jobs, too.  So
I really don't consider this as some amazing fiscal advantage.

>   - Patrick Taylor                                       (Arthur Dent)
>     Ericsson Network Systems
>     exuptr@exu.ericsson.se                       "Don't let the .se fool you"
>     or exuptr@ZGNews.Lonestar.Org, exu.exuptr@memo.ericsson.se
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
David L. Cathey		                |INET: davidc@montagar.com
Montagar Software Concepts              |UUCP: ...!montagar!davidc
P. O. Box 260772, Plano TX  75026-0772  |Fone: (214)-618-2117
Newsgroups: tx.politics