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Contact: Steven Garrison 319-385-3462
Iowa’s Privileged Class – Government School Teachers
Mt. Pleasant, IA – The past two months, Public Interest Institute Research Analyst Steven Garrison has looked at the pay gaps between Iowa state government employees and private sector employees, and state public university employees and private university employees. In a July INSTITUTE BRIEF Garrison looks at the pay gap between government school teachers and general private sector employees. Garrison says U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that in 2000 the average annual salary of a public school teacher in Iowa is $36,482. By comparison the average private sector salary is $27,500. The average school teacher is paid 33% more than the average private sector employee. Garrison says the difference in salary is even more remarkable when it is considered that the private sector employee works 12 months out of the year while the government school teacher works only nine months. Garrison says teachers organizations would lead you to believe that teachers are woefully underpaid in Iowa and deserve dramatic pay increases. Garrison concludes since Iowa is facing one of its tightest budget situations in recent memory, spending increases of any kind need to be put under careful and detailed scrutiny. He says it does not seem wise to give more pay increases to one privileged class of government employees when that particular class is already out-earning the average private sector employee by such wide margins.
For additional information on this
INSTITUTE BRIEF or any other Public Interest Institute publication, you may
contact PII at 319-385-3462, or log on to the PII web site at: ####
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