Possible Massive Wage Increase Coming For Teachers In New York

A new proposed bill could end up giving many teachers in New York a huge raise.

Last week, a Florida congress member introduced a new bill that would raise the minimum salary for any public school teacher to at least $60,000.

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Florida Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson who chairs the Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee introduced the American Teacher Act. The new proposed bill would incentivize states to increase the minimum K-12 teacher salary to $60,000 and provide adjustments for inflation.

The bill is intended to help ease the shortage of teachers across the country..According to the website Indeed.com, the average salary for a teacher in New York State is around $44,580 dollars per year.

In a press release, Congresswoman Wilson stated that teachers deserve a raise.

"Teachers deserve a raise. Our nation's teachers have been underpaid, overworked, and deprived of resources for too long. That's why I'm filing the American Teacher Act today, to give our nation's teachers the raise they have earned and deserve,"

Besides a new base salary, the American Teacher Act also provides many other services to teachers. The bill would authorize funding to support the following:

• Include a cost-of-living adjustment to ensure that minimum teacher salary keeps pace with inflation;
• Include a maintenance-of-effort provision to ensure states and districts do not replace currently committed allocations with federal government funding;
• Include a part-time teacher provision that adjusts the required minimum salary proportional to workload (e.g., a 60% FTE teacher would have a minimum salary of $36,000);
• Include a provision that existing salary schedules or structures (i.e., the number of steps and lanes) remain as is with additional qualifications accruing the same salary increases as before, with step 1 as $60,000 and further steps adjusted accordingly.
• Provide a funding device that supports states and districts in closing the gap between current starting salaries and the $60,000 minimum over the course of 4 years.
• Prioritize local educational agencies qualifying as low or moderate-income.
• Invest in a national campaign to expand awareness of the value of teaching and encourage secondary and college students to consider teaching as a career;
• Support state efforts to ensure competitive wages for teachers

The bills will now be debated in Congress before a vote is called. If passed by Congress, the President would have to sign the bill into law.