American Wages
Rarely will you hear me claim one job in society to be more important than another job in society. Infact, I am not sure the level of importance has ever been compared by me. How would one decide what is to be considered important or not important. The same question comes to mind when you deal with salaries or wages. How did society decide that it was acceptable to pay educators so little while athletes get paid so much. Sure, some might say that athletic jobs bring in money, and that is true; however, does that mean that educators should then start paying 10 dollars a day for a student to sit in their classroom? Clearly that would never be able to work. So when did society decide that job A should be paid X and job B should be paid Z? What were the guidelines for such decisions? I want answers!!!!
posted by Kourtney @ 8:33 PM
6 Comments:
I agree...give me a gagillion dollars now. :-) Hope all is well! :-)
Have you read Nickle and Dimed? I can't remember...if not--you should. I think you would find more ideas of the sort...
he reason some people get paid more is a matter of scarcity. Highly skilled professions (athletes, pilots, lawyers, doctors, etc) get paid more because (a) few people can do it and (b) a lot of people demand it. The combination of those two means that potential employers will fight over your services since they can use you for their own profit.
Want teachers to make more money? Here's the easy solution: steal babies at birth and draft them into schools. At the age of 10, parents can then choose to buy a child. Good teachers who can create the smartest kids would command a premium in the marketplace and be paid salaries through the roof since their kids would be the most expensive. Your only other solution is communism. Take your pick.
--Matt
Kristen: Yes I have read that book a couple different times for my soc classes. It is one that I tell a lot of people to read as well....
Matt:There is a flaw in your scarcity idea.....many states are unbelievably short on teaching staff mostly due to the lack of money in that field that no one wants to go into that profession. They still don't get paid a lot to entice people there.
Also, What does that say about our society that education is not deemed as "services worth fighting over" or other professions of the sort.
Unforunately, you can't quantify the demand for a teacher or a social worker, though. You can't really say "hiring one more teacher will generate X amount of revenue." In a market based economy, the relative worth of one's work is the price it fetches on the open market as a result of the product that's generated. Without honestly selling children to potential parent-buyers, its impossible to attach a tangible, quantifiable worth to that work.
I'm not saying they don't deserve to be paid more, because obviously teachers are extremely important to the development of our country. But their salaries aren't solely based on the scarcity of the labor pool, but also on the priced demand for their services, as well as the depth of the pocketbooks of their employers. States aren't so strong on those last two parts...
--matt
Id have to agree with matt on the scarcity thing. Anyone can be taught to be a teacher or a social worker, but not anyone can hit a 90mph fastball 300 plus feet. And teachers and social workers (as well as public defender) pay has been dramatically increasing over the past years. Additionally if you have a masters and/or Phd as a social worker you can make good money, and sit nicely in the middle class. Part of the problem in Michigan and other midwestern states is that there are A TON Of teachers and people who want to work in the human servie area, so they can pay them less and people will accept that pay.
Plus, you dont do the work for the pay, you do it for the difference you're making. They can pay you less because it's worth it to you in the long run, you could choose a profession where you'd make more money but thats not your passion.
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