The non-lucrative profession of teaching

Thousands of teachers in Indiana occupied the streets outside the Statehouse demanding better pay, according to media reports.

The Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) said in a report that it is calling on the state legislature to take action this session on prioritizing public schools and restoring respect for educators. The teachers’ union is pressing for lawmakers to provide a pay increase in teachers’ base salaries.

“While we await the governor’s teacher compensation commission report, the legislature must act on teacher pay this session,” said ISTA President Keith Gambill. “Indiana’s teacher pay gap with neighboring states will only get bigger if we do nothing this session. Lawmakers should invest $75 million as a down payment to provide an increase to teachers’ base salaries.”

According to the National Education Association's data, the average starting salary for teachers in Indiana was $35,943 and only in 15 states teachers get paid lesser than Indiana.

Salaries of teachers is an important issue in the United States as it ended up getting debated in the third Democratic presidential debate in September.

Although teachers' compensation is decided by state and local governments, the presidential candidates endorsed a raise in educators' pay.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis(BEA) data, people working in the educational services sector, a broad category that includes establishments providing academic or technical instruction, get paid lesser annually than people working in warehousing. Of the 22 major industry in the BEA data, people working in 14 of those industries make more money than people working in educational services

For the past decade, the growth of wages and salaries in educational services never went beyond 5 percent. In fact, the growth during the 2007 financial crash was faster than it is now.