Hot Topics
Teacher Gender Pay Gap Exposed
April 12, 2023
A recent research brief from the Brookings Institution exposed a pervasive gender pay gap in education. The brief was released on Monday, March 13 just ahead of Equal Pay Day (Tuesday, March 14). With approximately 77 percent of the profession being female, why are women making on average $2,200 less than males? Michael Hansen, a senior fellow at Brookings' Brown Center on Education Policy, who co-wrote the brief states, "These are public workers, government employees. ... Teachers are working under a compensation schedule, so there shouldn't be opportunities for differential pay, but yet (the data) still shows favoring men."
Male and female teachers generally have similar levels of experience and education, which guide district-adopted salary schedules. So why are female teachers making less than men? The gaps seem to point to extra duties or supplemental pay as some contributors. For example, when it comes to coaching or teaching summer school, “Men tend to be modestly more likely to participate in this extra work and are much more likely to be paid for it, especially if their school principal is also a man,” the researchers write. Contributing factors to higher male participation and compensation include: selective advertising - often opportunities were not made public and only certain individuals were invited to participate; decisions about which extra assignments get stipends and which don't - men are more often compensated for their extra assignments; and distribution of pay across extra assignments - even when all extra assignments come with stipends, men often hold the ones with higher stipends.
What can building leaders do to ensure more equitable pay across gender? A few of the suggested practices from the readings include: open advertisement of all positions and when possible, a diverse selection committee for the position; revise teacher contracts to include transparency in supplemental pay for extra duties; engage in participatory budgeting that allows multiple stakeholders to weigh in on adequate compensation; as well as explicit and uniform expectations around extra duty assignments.
For more on this story, check out these news articles:
Equal Pay Day? Not for teachers. Why men make more than women in female-dominated field - USA Today
- The Gender Pay Gap Is a Problem for Teachers, Too - Education Week