Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site mhuxt.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!js2j From: js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag) Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics,net.social Subject: Re: Discrimination against women (and teaching's rewards) Message-ID: <964@mhuxt.UUCP> Date: Tue, 25-Jun-85 13:10:14 EDT Article-I.D.: mhuxt.964 Posted: Tue Jun 25 13:10:14 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 26-Jun-85 06:57:57 EDT References: <482@ttidcc.UUCP> <8203@ucbvax.ARPA><457@unc.UUCP> <278@mss.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 41 Xref: watmath net.women:6078 net.politics:9577 net.social:736 > As a former MTS at Bell Labs and now a veteran of 3 years of teaching at > the high school level I would have to disagree with the above statements. > While an MTS I worked shorter hours, had infinitely more free time, > felt free to take long lunches, if I worked until late one night I balanced > that out by coming in later the next day. If something intrigued me I could > simply pursue that for awhile - as long as my other work didn't suffer. > For this freedom and access to outstanding facilities, I was paid extremely > well, received stock offerings, had a part in a savings plan, etc. < deleted description of teaching tasks. - jls> > For my time I get paid at a rate that is markedly below what I would earn > were I still at BTL. To be precise, in my first year at the Labs, > fresh out of graduate school in 1978, I was offered $19,100. Next year, my > fourth year in teaching, will be the first year that I will exceed that > salary. (Anyone care to factor inflation into those figures?) > > Jim Jenal (aka ...!scgvaxd!mss!jpj) First of all, let me say that Jim seems to be an extraordinarily well- qualified high school teacher - much better than any of the ones *I* had. But as to the question of *why* high school teachers are paid so much less than MTSes as BTL, I think the answer is pretty obvious. There are lots more qualified teachers ('qualified' as defined by the relevant schools) than there are teaching positions. Conversely, there are a lot more jobs for people with the qualifications to be an MTS at BTL than there are people with those qualifications. The law of supply and demand ensures that the equilibrium price for teachers will be low, as they are oversupplied. I wish there were more people of Jim's quality in our country's high schools. The way to accomplish this is *not* to diddle with the market to raise teacher's salaries. It is to change the definition of 'qualified' used by the hiring schools. Change it so that fewer are qualified and there will not be such a glut of qualified teachers. As a consequence, the equilibrium price for a teacher will have to rise. I'm afraid this doesn't really have much to do with net.women, save that a lot of schoolteachers *are* women, in a field which is not *underpaid*, but *oversupplied*. -- Jeff Sonntag ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j "I went down to the Scrub and Rub, but I had to sit in the back of the tub." - Dylan