Opinion: Inflation Is Not Just An ‘NC Teacher Tax.’ It’s An Everybody Tax.
By David Larson
Opinion Editor, Carolina Journal
Kim Mackey, a Wake County social-studies teacher, put together a website called N.C. Teacher Tax, which calculates how much money teachers lose to inflation compared to the pay they “signed up for” when they started. Teachers are certainly feeling the effects of rising prices, but the experience of inflation eating away at one’s buying power is hardly unique to them.
Mackey is a frequent author for left-wing North Carolina political sites like Cardinal & Pine, N.C. Policy Watch, and the editorial pages of the News & Observer. She is also a leader for the N.C. Association of Educators (the state’s NEA teachers union affiliate) and a former advisory board member of the protest group Red4Ed. So she certainly comes with a certain perspective on education.
But news sites were happy to run with her new N.C. Teacher Tax calculator and to publish it as if she were just an everyday teacher who happened to come across some interesting data on teacher pay and inflation.
WUNC, a state-based NPR affiliate, ran a piece with the title, “State teacher pay hasn’t kept pace with inflation. Teachers call it the ‘NC teacher tax.’” The lede read, “Social studies teacher Kim Mackey, who teaches at Green Hope High in Wake County, isn’t afraid to do a little math.” They never mention her affiliation with NCAE, Red4Ed, N.C. Policy Watch, Cardinal & Pine or other left-wing activism around education.
Neither did CBS-17 in their news segment on the new tool.
Looking at Mackey’s site, which was designed by a fellow teacher, the sample data shows that if a teacher started 22 years ago, inflation would have taken a chunk out of their buying power. Although, unless I’m misreading things, the chart seems to put the “actual pay received” for a 22-year teacher at about $55,000, which does not seem to line up with the total compensation with step increases, local supplements, and generous benefits typically received by veteran teachers. Not being an education-policy expert myself, I’ll leave that for others to judge.
Even accepting these calculations, it doesn’t take much poking around using the tool to see that those who have been teachers for fewer years have not had to deal with inflation much, if at all.
For example, if you plug in 2013 as the starting date, for those teachers who have been in the profession 10 years, one sees no red for inflation. In fact, there is green, meaning they saw more wages than they “signed up for.”
Instead of a “teacher tax,” they saw a “teacher bump” due to frequent bonuses from the Republican General Assembly — almost $30,000 worth.
With inflation hitting particularly hard since COVID-19 stimulus spending, it looks like state legislators are poised to respond with a larger-than-usual salary increase. According to Carolina Journal’s statehouse reporter Alex Baltzegar, the proposed N.C. House budget would make teacher pay in the state the highest in the region.
At that new average pay, the red of inflation would recede from this tool for even the most veteran teachers, and, I’d imagine, almost everyone would see their wage increases beating inflation.
Not everyone is so lucky
But inflation is not just a tax on N.C. teachers. It’s a tax on all workers. And ironically, it’s largely due to these kinds of budget debates, where legislators (this time at the federal level) are pressured to spend more and more until the debt weakens the dollar. There are of course other causes of inflation, like low productivity and easy credit.
Americans, including those here in North Carolina, are experiencing serious inflation, likely for a combination of all these reasons. And, while wages have been rising, most workers have not been fortunate enough to be able to see their wages surpass the rate of inflation.
Government data from late last year showed that while inflation had gone up over 7%, wages had only increased by 4.5%. This means, like teachers, most workers have been getting raises, but the red inflation bar is, on average, higher than the purchasing power they signed up to receive.
Kim Mackey is right. Inflation is a tax on income. Employees should be furious and should lobby elected leaders to control this hidden tax. Thankfully for her, teachers are in a better position to hold onto their purchasing power as inflation continues to affect us all.
David Larson is opinion editor of Carolina Journal.
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12 Comments
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Bracket creep is a real problem with inflation as well, increasing the effective income tax rates for everyone.
What a ridiculous article. The “Teacher Tax” referred to the cumulative effects of Republicans restructuring the pay scale, along with the 2008-2009 pay freeze so that teachers don’t actually get the salary schedule they “signed up for.” As an example, A 15 year teaching veteran has their pay frozen for a decade in the restructuring. Of course, the GOP doesn’t like to mention that. A decade! That must be why top quality college graduates are avoiding the field and why we have empty classrooms. Why would anybody go into teaching, only to see their pay lag far behind other fields and get treated this shabbily?
As a teacher in my 15th year teaching, thank you for helping clarify the real problem that was trying to be addressed with this article. I know I’m one of the crazy few that are still in the teaching profession that started at year 0 in 2008-2009. I’ve almost always had a second job since beginning and have worked the “Summers off” everyone loves to talk about so much. And, I had thought about getting my Master’s but didn’t want to be an admin or a counselor so even that isn’t really an incentive since Master’s Pay went away…. I continue to teach because I love what I do, but I’d love to do a lot more if I earned more… it’s tough… am I crazy for staying so long already or crazy for continuing another 15 without knowing what’s to come?!?
First, THANK YOU for what you’re doing! We need good dedicated teachers in NC. Second, I’d say stay. Don’t throw away all the retirement you’ve accrued just because things are bad right now. Things can change, and we’re working hard to make that change happen. See it through. Don’t quit now and look back in 15 years and remind yourself, “I could be retiring right now, but I chose to leave.”
Vouchers……. just do vouchers and let businesses balance their budget. We’d likely have higher education standards, better prepared graduates, and better paid teachers. Ah, but that goes against the socialist mindset.
I’m still waiting for the $350 dollars bev Perdue stole from me. Literally refused to pay teachers due to her poor management and budget shortfall so they withheld teachers full pay.
But you ignore how Perdue tried to give raises her last year, only to be blocked by the republicans and how there was a recession going on? You ignore how the GOP kept those pay freezes in place and then went after benefits such as Master’s pay? You ignore how the GOP eventually restructured the pay plan so that instead of yearly STEP increases, teachers now had to wait several years for the next STEP boost? You ignore how they are keeping veteran teachers pay frozen after they hit year 15? You ignore how they took away retiree health care for new hires? Perdue hasn’t even been in office for over a decade. Just wow.
Why is it always about the poor teachers what about the rest of the state workers that get a smaller raise each year that has to work all year and overtime and still make less money than the teachers
If you don’t want to be a teacher anymore, go find another job. There are plenty of people who don’t get paid what they are worth and plenty of people who aren’t worth what they are paid. It’s not a teacher problem. The rest of the workforce is in the same boat.
I’m 100% for raises. But they should be merit based and backed by empirical performance data. The fact that we can’t fire bad teachers, who shovel failing children into the next grade, is preposterous. Where’s the accountability?
I’ve got bad news for you…. Administrators shovel the kids forward NOT THE TEACHER. Ad ministers can promote a student regardless of grades and or test scores. I don’t know if one teacher that wants a kid passed when they aren’t ready for the next grade. Administrators don’t want students retained. It’s all administrators. I’ve taught fort 30 years. Fact.
Yeah, that will really get top quality candidates into those empty classrooms taught by substitutes. Just claim teachers refuse to hold kids accountable even though they don’t control that. Just tell them to sign up for a job that pays far less than other jobs requiring the same education and then tell them that maybe they’ll get a pay raise when they perform to your satisfaction. This is like telling doctors that they should make far less than other jobs that require the same education level and that their pay will only increase if they can get people to live healthier lifestyles, thus boosting outcomes.