8,000+ public school teachers are underpaid based on their experience
Updated: January 27, 2022
State lawmakers are considering proposals that would assure that teachers in Hawaii, like their counterparts around the United States, are paid based on their years of experience. Here are the answers to frequently asked questions about a problem affecting thousands of educators in the islands: compression.
What is compression?
Unlike other school districts across the country, Hawaii does not pay teachers based on years of experience but according to classifications based on education. While there are steps on the schedule that should reflect years of experience, teachers have not always been provided step movements. As a result, a teacher with decades of experience, yet not at the top of the salary schedule, sometimes makes little to no more than a teacher with significantly fewer years of experience, thus compressing very experienced teachers on the same step and rate of pay as those with significantly less experience.
Educators who have taught in Hawaii for a little more than a decade endured the last recession when the state did not grant teachers any raises, so their pay stagnated for several years, causing thousands of teachers to be compressed and stuck on the same salary step with no increases for years.
How many public school teachers in Hawaii are affected by compression?
Based on data provided by the department in late 2021 and with the expectation that a step should be earned after every two full years of service, approximately 8,700 teachers, counselors, librarians, and registrars in Hawaii who are not at the top of the salary schedule are underpaid based on years of experience.
If compression is fixed, what types of raises would some educators see?
Pay gaps range from $7,700 to $26,000, and salaries could increase by that range, depending on the number of years educators have been teaching.
Which educators will benefit from fixing the compression problem?
Roughly 8,700 bargaining unit members are affected by salary compression spanning those with more than three decades of service who are not at the top salary (Step 14B) to those just finishing their second year of service who are on salary Step 5.
What step should I be on?
If educator salaries were adjusted to reflect years of service, Bargaining Unit 05 members could expect to see the following placement:
| Years of Service | Step Assignment |
|---|---|
| 22 years or more | 14B |
| 20 years or more; but less than 22 years | 14A |
| 18 years or more; but less than 20 years | 14 |
| 16 years or more; but less than 18 years | 13 |
| 14 years or more; but less than 16 years | 12 |
| 12 years or more; but less than 14 years | 11 |
| 10 years or more; but less than 12 years | 10 |
| 8 years or more; but less than 10 years | 9 |
| 6 years or more; but less than 8 years | 8 |
| 4 years or more; but less than 6 years | 7 |
| 2 years or more; but less than 4 years | 6 |
| 0 years or more; but less than 2 years | 5 |
Why compression?
Right now, it can take 30 years or longer to reach 14B, the highest step in the salary schedule. Teachers have seen their pay compressed because regular step increases have not happened during financial downturns.
How will fixing compression help ease the teacher shortage crisis?
With the pandemic affecting Hawaii public schools now for a third school year, we must also make sure we can retain educators we already have who know our students best. Compression on the teacher salary schedule is a wrong that needs to be rectified if we are to stave off a mass exodus from the profession.
Experienced teachers are planning to retire because they have no hope they will recover the lost recognition of their experience.
When teachers know they can reach the top of the salary schedule in 22 years, they will be able to plan and have better financial security and be more likely to remain on the job with students benefiting from experienced, qualified teachers instead of more short- and long-term substitutes, some of whom do not have college degrees.
With a first-year, certified teacher’s salary starting at roughly $50,000 a year, Hawaii’s educators are among the lowest paid in the country factoring in Hawaii’s high cost of living. As a result, the state deals with a constant recruitment and retention problem, with Hawaii’s Department of Education (HIDOE) reporting 886 teacher vacancies, 230 of those open spots in special education. Fixing compression will boost the salaries of most teachers, helping to persuade more of them to remain on the job and stay in Hawaii where our keiki can benefit from their experience.
What’s the difference between salary steps and class?
State law establishes six salary classifications for public school teachers based on their education and professional development. Steps are different, they should reflect a teachers’ experience, but economic downturns have resulted in stagnation and no movement for teachers for many years.
Step salary increases are negotiated with the employer and usually equate to about a 3% salary increase. HSTA’s 12-step salary schedule starts on Step 5 for those who have completed a state-approved teacher education program and goes through Step 14B.
When were the last step increases negotiated for teachers?
HSTA was able to secure a step increase for teachers every other year in the collective bargaining agreements since 2013. When this new contract began on July 1, 2021, the employer did not agree to any step movement for two years, through to the expiration of the contract on June 30, 2023.
Where would the money come from to pay teachers more?
The state pays teachers out of its general fund, which gets its revenue from a variety of income, excise, and hotel room taxes among others. Earlier this month, the state Council on Revenues more than doubled its forecast for Hawaii’s general fund tax revenue to increase by 15% in the fiscal year that ends in June, and predicted the state will have a tax surplus of more than $1 billion.
Gov. David Ige proposed restoring $100 million to the HIDOE’s base budget and adding $32.5 million to continue shortage differentials to help recruit geographically hard-to-staff, special education, and Hawaiian immersion teaching positions in his proposed supplemental budget.
What legislative proposal is aimed at fixing salary compression this year?
State Senate proposal SB2819 would fund an experimental modernization project “to address compensation equity issues and to make the necessary discretionary salary adjustments for approximately eight thousand seven hundred experienced senior teachers by recognizing their professional service to the (Hawaii State) Department of Education through discretionary salary adjustments.”
Research indicates that competitive and equitable compensation correlates with greater success in recruiting and retaining qualified educators, the bill said.
“Yet, numerous studies have shown that Hawaii’s teacher salaries are the lowest in the nation when adjusted for the state’s high cost of living. The legislature also finds that teacher salaries are unequal when experienced senior teachers are aligned with less senior teachers in their placement within the existing salary schedules. Unfair pay scales have driven experienced senior teachers to either retire early or leave the profession, due to the perception that their experience and dedication to public education and the teaching profession will never be adequately valued and recognized,” SB 2819 said.
The Senate bill was co-introduced by 17 senators including Senate Education Chair Michelle Kidani, Senate Education Vice Chair Donna Mercado Kim, Senate Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz, and Senate Ways and Means Committee Vice Chair Gil Keith-Agaran. The other senators who co-introduced the bill are: Laura Acasio, Stanley Chang, Lynn DeCoite, Kurt Fevella, Lorraine Inouye, Dru Kanuha, Jarrett Keohokalole, Chris Lee, Bennette Misalucha, Karl Rhoads, Maile Shimabukuro, Roslyn Baker, Mike Gabbard, Les Ihara, Gil Riviere and Glenn Wakai.
A similar state House proposal, HB2359, has been introduced by House Speaker Scott Saiki and House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke.
Legislation is subject to amendment and change and the final outcome will not be clear unless and until lawmakers pass the bill in some form and it becomes law with or without Gov. David Ige’s signature.
Will this proposal be in lieu of negotiated pay raises?
No. Any negotiated step increases or across-the-board pay hikes would come in addition to the compression proposal and would benefit every member of Bargaining Unit 05. The HSTA’s current contract with the state expires on June 30, 2023.
If a compression bill becomes law, how soon will its provisions be implemented?
SB2819 would set aside money for an “experimental modernization project” to become available in the 2022-2023 fiscal year which starts July 1, 2022. The exact details need to be negotiated between the superintendent of education and the HSTA, according to the bill.
It calls for the superintendent and union to reach a memorandum of understanding to address compensation equity issues and make the necessary discretionary salary adjustments for about 8,700 “teachers whose current base salary does not reflect their years of professional service; provided that the moneys shall not be released until the memorandum of understanding is executed between the superintendent of education and the exclusive representative of collective bargaining unit (5).”
Legislation is subject to amendment and change and the final outcome will not be clear unless and until lawmakers pass the bill in some form and it becomes law with or without Gov. David Ige’s signature.
Would charter school teachers be covered by SB2819?
Yes. The proposal calls for funds to be appropriated to ensure teachers at charter schools are also paid for their years of service. HSTA will continue to advocate that all our Bargaining Unit 05 members who are affected by compression are included with this funding.
Didn’t we come close to solving the compression issue recently?
The last time a teacher compression bill was introduced was in January 2020, but those efforts stalled with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic shortly after the legislative session began.