Teaching Conditions: Compensation and Working Hours

Educators are sharing their experiences with working beyond contractual hours. Among issues of work-life balance, this has raised questions about school funding and equitable compensation.

  • “Let me ask y’all: how realistic are contract hours? I’m not naive- I just want to hear about your experience. We all know there isn’t enough time in the day, but how do you manage without getting caught up in the ‘I’m doing all this for free’ after hours mindset.” —Elementary Teacher in Florida
    • “Contract hours are unrealistic.  Last year I decided to give myself grace.  I stay 2-3 hours after my contract hours each day.  If I can’t, I don’t and I don’t beat myself up.  I do very little at home. In the summer, it’s about me and family until August 1.” —Kindergarten Teacher in South Carolina
  • “Unfortunately, many of us do work extra hours and do many other work-related duties without the ability to earn extra revenue. That’s a great idea. Pay teachers extra revenue for doing extra work like many other professions.” —Teacher N/A
  • “So far I’ve put in at least 10 unpaid work hours and our contract doesn’t even start until tomorrow” —Elementary Teacher in Maryland
  • “Here’s what I want: 1. A paid day dedicated to completing all mandatory trainings. 2. A paid week dedicated to classroom setup and planning. 3. One paid day every 6 weeks dedicated to planning/grading/working in room. 4. My time to be valued and dedicated to instruction.” —High School Art Teacher in Kentucky
  • “I’d love to chat with some ‘just don’t take work home’ and ‘only do work during your contract hours’ folks and give them my to-do list for this week and see how they’d work it all into a 50 minute daily prep.” —ELA Teacher
  • “Today I put in five hours of work (extra, unpaid) to prepare for our upcoming fall semester. I’ll be doing a bit more next week but I’m taking the weekend off. My choices were to put in the extra time or suffer terrible back-to-school nightmares. I chose the former for a reason.” —English Teacher in Missouri