Wisconsin's Act 10, Flexible Pay, and the Impact on Teacher Labor Markets: Student Test Scores Rise in Flexible-Pay Districts. So Does a Gender Gap for Teacher Compensation

Empirical evidence on the effects of compensation reform is somewhat scarce. Most U.S. public school teachers are paid according to rigid schedules that determine pay based solely on seniority and academic credentials. In unionized school districts, these schedules are set by collective bargaining a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Education next 2023, Vol.23 (3), p.26
Main Author: Biasi, Barbara
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Collective Bargaining
Compensation (Remuneration)
Gender Differences
Labor Market
Public School Teachers
Salary Wage Differentials
State Legislation
Teacher Effectiveness
Teacher Salaries
Unions
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Summary:Empirical evidence on the effects of compensation reform is somewhat scarce. Most U.S. public school teachers are paid according to rigid schedules that determine pay based solely on seniority and academic credentials. In unionized school districts, these schedules are set by collective bargaining agreements. In 2011 when the Wisconsin state legislature passed Act 10, which limited the scope of salary negotiations to base pay, preventing unions from negotiating salary schedules and including them in collective bargaining agreements; capped annual growth in base pay to the rate of inflation and required employees to contribute more towards their pensions and health care plans; and made it harder for unions to operate. In a series of studies, the author has taken advantage of the changes to teachers' labor markets introduced by the reform to shed light on the impact of flexible pay on teachers' mobility and effectiveness, the gender wage gap among teachers, and whether most teachers would prefer higher salaries today versus more generous pensions when they retire.
ISSN:1539-9664