The Teachers' Pay Gap
An editorial from 1887 argues that Seattle’s teachers are overworked, undervalued, and paid significantly less than city laborers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It is a curious fact that, of all public servants, the teachers are the worst paid. In almost every city, policemen and all other classes of municipal employees receive higher wages than the teachers of the public schools. It would not be easy to say why this is true. It certainly requires greater intelligence to teach children than it does to walk the streets and guard property. And surely no one will say that the work of a teacher is less arduous than that of a policeman. Yet the teacher's name is always found at the foot of the pay-roll, and when a spasm of economy afflicts the public, the teachers' salaries are always the first to be reduced. The teachers should be paid well. They earn and earn well all that they receive. There is no more difficult or more trying work than the work of the graded room, and those who perform it should receive due recognition from the public.
“The teacher's name is always found at the foot of the pay-roll, and when a spasm of economy afflicts the public, the teachers' salaries are always the first to be reduced.”
More than a century later, the debate over how Seattle prioritizes teacher compensation relative to city service roles persists. While the cost of living has skyrocketed, the historical frustration regarding the 'spasm of economy' at the expense of educators remains a perennial theme in local labor politics.
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