We all feel underpaid, and somehow our employers all feel we’re overpaid. So, who’s right? Well, if we keep working for the amount they’re paying us, and our boss keeps paying that amount instead of letting us go, then it’s pretty safe to say that’s the market amount for our circumstance.

We are programmed from childhood to reflexively say teachers are underpaid. The sun comes up in the east and teachers are underpaid.  So how is it that, for the most part, there is a teacher in every classroom? Teacher shortages do happen, we’re likely in one now, so districts must pay more to fill those classrooms. But in one way — whenever there are enough teachers to fill classrooms — we can say they are being paid enough.

The real question is, given their important role and the value they provide, should they be paid even more? Fact is, we don’t know because there’s no truly open market for teachers.

Read the whole article published by the Denver Post on April 27, 2018.