New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
Wages Given to the Substi-
>tutes in City's Schools
Not Equal to Earning of
the Average Scrubwoman
Long Training Required
Business Girl, in Short Time,
Gets Far Better Rate Than
the City Pays Educators

Teaching school is as improbable
line Of endeavor as any in New Yorl
in proportion to the preparation anG
skill required it absolutely is the
least profitable. The facts as to the
underpay in the school system are
more than enough to account for the
hundreds of designations and the othe,
hundreds of untitled positions which
are crippling the public schools. Fol
example:
Teachers in the elementary grades
receive on an average about $40O
year less than the union scale in
women in New York City.
New teachers rank in pay with
girls who have had short COM
experience in business The teach
ers cannot qualify for licenses with
out six years study after leaving
elementary school
Girls in Business
Outrank Teachers
girl in business, if she is at all
competent, will get higher pay after
two years experience than the aver
age teacher in the elementary
schools, including those who have
been in the city's service all their
working lives.
Substitute teachers average less
pay than workers in any line that
can be discovered, including cooks,
laundresses and casual houseworkers.
To be eligible for examination for
license to teach, girl must have
passed through four years high
school course and then have two years
more work in the teachers training
school. When she gets her appoint
ment she is paid $685. a year-which
would be S18 week if she work ed
the full year.
OF course she has her two months
summer vacation, which she may possi-
bly, turn to profit But she needs it
tor rest, for nerve strain and exhaus
ton are so common among teachers at
the close of the years work as to be
almost the rule.
Schoolroom Life
Is Steady Grind
"A teachers life is a steady grind /"
declares Miss Olive Jones. secretary Of
the Federation of Teachers Associa-
tons, which represents sxtv-four or
"In an office one can let
down TOT moment or two. In a store
well, we have all seen how often the
clerks there manage to detach their
mlnds from business. In any case. they
get the lunch hour off. But teacher,
hn 81,
IN the morning until she goes home at
night, dare not relax for an instant.
Then she takes her work home w,.n
her, thing which not one worker j. a
nundre on equal pay in the buslress
work has to do. She has to prepare in
what sht to be her free time. for
the next days school. Moreover. FOR a
good teacher, the moral responsibility
she feels for the children in her charge
is heavy and wearing. And the COM
demands from teacher the
same cautiousness and righteousness
in department that it demands of a
clergyman, but without giving her the
same respect and social position it
grants to him as a recompense. The
teacher who has strength enough to do
anything but rest during the summer is
lucky"
This is the kind OF work-to say
nothing OF is Importance to the com
munity, to The future of the 800 900
school children in New York and to the
security of the foundations of democ-
racy-for which the city pays less than
Is earned by the workers at any skilled
trade. There is sliding scale of sala-
rles for teachers, which makes averages
unsafe, but for the elementary schools,
in which the vast majority of the
teachers work. the lowest salary is 1895;
the highest, for principals. is $3,666,
and the average about 81 24O
Pay Not Equal to
Lowliest Worker
Turn to the labor world and consider
figures furnished by the Central Fed
Grated Union, which represented most
of the unionists in New York and vicin-
ity. There is no union in New York.
the c. F U. officials say, which is now
working for a scale below Sc day,
which would run to 81 ,664 year. more
than S400 higher than the average paid
for teachers. The highly skilled trades,
like those engaged in building, are
working for 50 to $40 for an eight
hour day; $2.496 to $3,120 a year. The
lowest figure doubles the average. The
highest passes that of any one below
the grade of principal.
Two trades which employ many
women show similar comparisons. The
upholstery trade pays its women work
ers Sc for eight hours, on forty-four
week; $l,664 year. In the garment
trades the women workers are making
from $1,720 to $3,12O a year. In ali
cases the figures for the year have been
based on the assumption of full time,
which at present is almost universal.
The comparison is only less striking
IN the commercial world--the' figures
given being supplied by the Doyle
Agency. Clerks or telephone operators,
with no more training than that given
IN the elementary schools, start work
at $l5 a week, $3.50 a year, and
promptly shoot past the six year trained
teacher, with her $a35. Stenographers.
with aix rnnnths, -; e