What we earn

NEA Today, Sep 1994

You are one of the approximately 1.9 million full-time and 800,000 part-time support employees working for public schools and colleges across the country. Despite your numbers, there hasn't been very much information collected about you--until now.

For the past two years, members of NEA's Research staff in Washington, D.C. have been studying you and your colleagues around the nation to find out more about you--and your wages.

NEA researchers poured over data from NEA state and local affiliates, the U.S. Census Bureau, state departments of education and labor commissions, and the Educational Research Service. And they've learned a lot, which they want to share with you for the first time on these pages.

Two words of caution: First, don't expect these numbers to be exact matches of your salary. They are national averages, taking into account the full-time wages (30 hours a week or more) of public school and college employees all over the country.

Second, NEA Research figures don't exactly match the numbers from the Educational Research Service that are printed on the following pages. NEA Today uses ERS data to give you some rough ideas of salary trends and salary differences around the country for 10 selected occupations. The averages ERS provides are not scientific.

For more information or a copy of Estimating and Updating the National Average Full-Time Educational Support Personnel Salary, write to NEA Research, 1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036.

* Name: Lenora Carpenter

* Local Association, state: Camden Education Association, New Jersey

* Years of service: 23

* Current pay: $27,000 for 12 months

* Most recent major purchase: A couch.

* Biggest financial worry: My daughter is in 11th grade. I'm concerned about being able to afford to send her to college.

* Best part of the job: Working with the kids on a one-to-one basis. The kids I work with [those with attendance and discipline problems] often have problems at home and are practically raising themselves. I try to help however I can.

* Part of the job I'd change if I could: The antiquated environment we work in. We don't even have computers in our office. When parents, courts, welfare workers call, we should be able to call up files, instead of having to go look for this here and that there.

* I think I'm worth: Getting respect the way I give it.

* Name: Pat Sloat

* Local Association, state: Custodial/Maintenance Workers of District #218, Illinois

* Years of service: 13

* Current pay: $12.98 an hour, 40 hours a week for 12 months

* Most recent major purchase: A compact disc player.

* Biggest financial worry: Retirement. I'm trying to make sure I have adequate health insurance and enough money to live on.

* Best part of the job: The rapport I have with the staff in the building and the students.

* Part of the job I'd change if I could: We need additional staff help. When people are out sick, we have to chip in and do their work. We need substitutes to help cover people's absences.

* I think I'm worth: A lot. I wear a pin that says it all. It says, "I make the difference."

* Name: Sarah Dunn

* Local Association, state: Wake County Education; Support Personnel, North Carolina

* Years of service: 10

* Current pay: $8.38 an hour, 30 hours a week for 9 months

* Most recent major purchase: A truck.

* Biggest financial worry: I need a salary increase to help me buy a house.

* Best part of the job: Working the kids. I just enjoy seeing them smile when they come on the bus and wave to me when they leave.

* Part of the job I'd change if I could: We have a problem with student discipline on the school bus, and we don't have the authority or the training to handle it.

* I think I'm worth: $15 an hour. I leave home at 5:30 in the morning, and my first stop is before 6 a.m.

* Name: Sandy Hoffmann

* Local Association, state: Northern Educational Support Team, Wisconsin

* Years of service: 15

* Current pay: $20,650 for 12 months

* Most recent major purchase: An old motor home. We're planning to see some of the woods we haven't seen in northern Wisconsin.

* Biggest financial worry: I'm afraid I'll be laid off because of budget cuts.

* Best part of the job: The people I work with.

* Part of the job I'd change if I could: The uncertainty. It may just be a matter of time before they start laying people off.

* I think I'm worth: Being treated like a person by the management here.

* Name: Sandy Yeaton

* Local Association, state: ACSUM--the Associated COLT Staff of the University of Maine

* Years of service: 17

* Current pay: $23,000 for 12 months

* Most recent major purchase: My father-in-law's car, a '91 Buick.

* Biggest financial worry: I have a son going to college in September, and a daughter getting married in December. I'm worried about getting through this year.

* Best part of the job: I like the people that I work with, and I like to pride myself on getting material to people as quickly as it comes in.

* Part of the job I'd change if I could: The working conditions. We're in a very old building that needs paint, carpeting, and general repair.