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Following record-high public support for improved teacher salaries, many states initiated a variety of pandemic-era reforms to teacher compensation policies to improve teacher morale and retention. In this article, we examine a minimum teacher salary reform in Missouri, a state home to a diverse geographic landscape including major metropolitan areas and large rural regions. On the one hand, we estimate eligible teachers would receive sizable salary increases averaging almost eight percent. Conversely, these teachers were located almost exclusively in the state's rural areas, effectively excluding most urban teachers and students and, due to the state's non-white ethnoracial concentration in urban metropolitan areas, virtually all of the state's non-White teachers and students. As states craft policy reforms to support their teacher workforces, attention must be devoted to the magnitude and the distribution of funding to ensure its equitable allocation across teacher and student characteristics and district urbanicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the three-year microdata sample of the American Community Survey for 2009 to 2011, we compute public school teacher salaries for comparison across US states. Teacher salaries are adjusted for state differences in teacher characteristics, cost of living, federal tax rates, household amenity attractiveness, and location within the metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan portions of the states. We find high persistence in the state rankings of nominal public school teacher salaries across time. Yet, we also find that the rankings significantly shift with the adjustments, suggesting they are necessary for meaningful comparisons of public teacher salaries across states. The differences in teacher pay across states also greatly narrow with the adjustments. Finally, this is the first study to show and test that teacher salary comparisons across states should be based on a comparison of public school teacher salaries with nonteacher college graduates in the states, adjusted for differences in personal characteristics and effective federal tax rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Costs associated with teacher salaries are relative in that these costs are referenced to a relevant labor market rather than based on the absolute value of the services provided by teachers. Because the selection of a relevant labor market can substantially influence the costs associated with teacher salaries, a field study was conducted to assess the relative efficiency of four different labor markets that could be used to establish teacher salaries. Within this study, specific economic principles are used to define different labor markets for teachers, and these different labor markets are cast within a randomized block design. Efficiency of these markets was defined from a least squares perspective and was assessed relative to a beginning teacher salary and to an average teacher cost. Results of a MANOVA indicate that some labor markets are more efficient for determining the average teacher salary, and all markets are equally efficient for setting beginning salaries for teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates pay and compensation practices in the employment setting as it relates to the exchange relationships involving public school boards and professional employees in the United States. Procedural and distributive dimensions of organizational justice; Impact of different referent sources used for comparison; Exploration of earning equations.

Examines an alternative, collective bargaining lens for viewing knowledge- and skill-based plans. Discussion on reactions of individual teachers to knowledge- and skill-based plans; Addressing collective bargaining issues that may emerge as a district employer and teachers' union attempt to reach agreement over a knowledge-and skill-based plan; Exploring union involvement in strategic issues related to alternative pay plans.