New York, NY – The number of city workers pulling down $100,000 or more jumped more than tenfold in the last decade, largely because of hefty raises won by schoolteachers and principals.
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Figures compiled by the mayor’s Budget Office at the request of The Post show that just 2,059 employees broke the $100,000 barrier in 2000, a mere .8 percent of the workforce.
By last year — as the city was recording double-digit unemployment rates — the number had jumped to 23,301, or 8.4 percent.
And that was only for base salaries. Overtime and other bonuses weren’t included.
Officials pointed to the 43 percent raises won by teachers since Mayor Bloomberg took office as the main reason.
More than half the 100-granders — 13,555 — work in public schools, including 7,197 teachers and 4,625 principals.
Top pay for a teacher with 22 or more years and 30 credits beyond a master’s degree is $100,049.
Carol Kellerman, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, said the numbers indicate that teachers and principals “are well paid relative to most New Yorkers.”
She said they can afford to surrender two percent of their anticipated four-percent wage hikes as requested by the mayor to avert 2,500 layoffs.
But Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said teachers here still earn less than their suburban counterparts and he argued that now is the worst time for rollbacks.
“I’m trying to do everything we can to avoid the 1970s,” said Mulgrew, recalling a period when the city flirted with bankruptcy and the school system suffered severe cutbacks.
UFT officials also contested the city’s numbers, saying that by their count only 5,422 teachers made the $100,000 cut.
Unbelivable….
My wife is a teacher and making bobkes… before her checks bounce…
There are so many public schools on BP
so thats where all the ticket money goes!!
Don’t forget our beloved Felder also makes more than $100,000.00
If we would include the pension in the package ,with life expectancy going up ,and the benefits package it’s double the basr salary. I know it’s hard to accept but an experienced public school teacher’s complete package is worth 200k plus. Working less the 200 days a year.
Whats the big deal. We pay first year lawyers who just graduated law school $164,000 per year and most of our clients pay new business school grads well over $100,000 per year. If we want competent managers and analysts working for the city, we need to pay them at least as much as a new college grad working in the private sector.
dont be bitter.
these are people who need money.
they have responsibilities and cars and boats that need attention.
you? what do you need?…just tuition and food and shelter….
do not begrudge these uneducated appointments.
Over $100,000 for a teacher who only works a total of about 8 months out of the year? That’s insane. No wonder New York is broke.
What’s this about teachers working only 8 months a year? The problem is that it’s usually twelve hours a day when you figure in lesson preparation and grading papers. I taught undergraduate college students and found that it takes two hours (at least) of preparation for each class hour, plus grading. And that’s in college, where if a young adult doesn’t care you can simply ignore them. You can’t ignore a failing or problem child in K-12. You have a responsibility as a teacher to try to help that child meet the school’s demands, plus pinch-hitting as guidance counselor, parent counselor and social worker.
Most of our teachers may deserve 100,00 dollars a year, but I guarantee you that most of them aren’t getting it. What about the CEO’s who are getting bonuses after our tax dollars bailed their companies out? They didn’t do anything useful – just ruin our economy. Why are we trying to smear teachers instead?
i worked for predigious firms and i live in the best neighborhood.
let the teachers make big money, if they can.
i dont understand why are we forced to pay fore teachers such high wages more then the median income just like we dont buy the most expensive clothes houses etc we dont need such teachers the means dont justify the cost its like a tax there should one price for the whole u.s. it plain discrimnatory against the students you have better teachers we dont have
It’s nice to know, that in NYC, teachers don’t have to know how to teach, just pass their studies, to get paid the big bucks. Don’t you love being cheated by the unions?