Underpaid careers

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Gravitykillr

Well Hypothetically lets take your job whatever that may be, and lets add the Element of at any moment someone could walk into said job and shove a gun in your face and threaten to murder you for a couple of hundred dollars? is that worth $9 an hour to you? I wouldn't think so.

There are lots of jobs that run the same risk. But for the most part a convenient store job does not have substantial risk that would require danger pay. It's not like when your a convenient store worker, a good day is day when you come home alive.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

I think one of the main reasons that I don't think teachers are overpaid, is because without proper teachers, where would this world go? Teachers play such a vital role in the development of kids, they need to be paid properly to entice people to the profession. I think teaching is one of those careers that most do for non-selfish reasons, but if the financial reasons attract a few good teachers as well, that's an added bonus.

But that is the exact opposite of what is happening. No one is saying, "I want to make lots of money, I am going to become a teacher." In fact your right that most people do it because they want to or have a love for it. I can't imagine how people out there want to become teachers but decide to go into business because the money isn't there for teaching. It's a shame really.

[Fire]

Originally Posted by Kobatuzzied

CFL football players. Some of them are playing pro ball for $40k to $50k a year. That is crazy. Iginla makes more more than the Stampeders combined. Even Tanguay makes more than the whole team.

CFL players are not underpaid and NHL players are not overpaid. Players from both leagues make a fair percentage of the leagues total revenue.

[metallicat]

Originally Posted by Burninator

But that is the exact opposite of what is happening. No one is saying, "I want to make lots of money, I am going to become a teacher." In fact your right that most people do it because they want to or have a love for it. I can't imagine how people out there want to become teachers but decide to go into business because the money isn't there for teaching. It's a shame really.

Then those people shouldn't be teachers when it comes down to it. If you want to be a teacher, do it for the right reasons, and if the money is good enough to be a nice bonus, then great.

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by jar_e

...

i think for the most part people are paid exactly what they should.

if you are underpaid, then surely someone out there will pay you more, so go and get that job. otherwise, clearly you arent underpaid.

no such thing as overpaid.

[PYroMaNiaC]

I believe that good teachers are a godsend. I have no idea how they can do what they do every day. I'd volunteer for cleaning out the inside of 100 tar pots before I'd take on the task of teaching a class of 30 young people to become productive member of society. I have my hands full with two.

I was in Frank's camp just two short years ago. Now, I'm firmly with MJK. These people teach our future. I say pay them more - way more! It's conditional though: the bad ones have to go because the damage a single bad teacher can do is unspeakable.

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

i think for the most part people are paid exactly what they should.

if you are underpaid, then surely someone out there will pay you more, so go and get that job. otherwise, clearly you arent underpaid.

no such thing as overpaid.

I agree, to the extent people care about money.

Obviously if someone has options, and/or marketable skills they are paid market or 'fair' rates.

With some exceptions where people do the job because of other intrisic value like teaching or fighting fires.

[Antithesis]

Originally Posted by V

Yeah, I know it starts at 40k. I was really depressed with my job a couple years ago, and thought of going back to school to become a teacher. It was pretty tough to justify cutting my salary in half. Granted, I was going from a P. Eng to a base level teacher, so a significant cut was expected. Still, 40k over 9 months translates to over 50 over 12 months, as long as you can get yourself working in a trade. Pick up a shovel for a month and a half at 15 bucks an hour in the summer. You can get paid overtime for that.

I've posted this before as a query because I've honestly never had much of a "desk job" in my life but never gotten any discussion out of it.

As a teacher, I work at least 10 hours a day. I know this isn't anything out of the ordinary, but what I am wondering is this: when I say I work that much, I literally mean I work that much. Not I am AT work that much. I pride myself on the fact that I am a very efficient worker so little time is wasted. My break consists of (4 days a week) a ~40 minute lunch break. The other day I have supervision at lunch.

What I'm getting at here is, at work, I can't take "CP Breaks" or "Fark Breaks" or just get up and go to the next cube to speak to a co-worker. Hell, I can't even get up and go to the bathroom whenever I feel like it (yes, I literally have to plan bathroom breaks into my day). When I hear the argument, "So what, everyone works that much", I wonder if that figure is in actual hours worked or if it is the amount of time people spend at work. Does that make sense?

As I said before, I am generally happy with what I earn and I understand that as a teacher and a public servant, I trade earning potential for job security.

The issue of teacher burnout is indeed very real because I see it happening to colleagues all the time. It can't be that teachers are a bunch of wimps (I don't think) ... so what could another explanation be?

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

To throw a few jobs that really haven't been mentioned out there....

Politicians - I know some people will say what does the average politician do and how do they really deserve the salary that they are getting, but having met more than a few politicans in my life I know that for the most part they work quite hard - especially those in the notable positions. It isn't the country club that many people envision it to be.

Police Officers/Soldiers/Fire Fighters/EMT - These are the people who go out and put themselves in harms way and their wages sure don't reflect that. I have aspirations to be in one of these careers so that might make me biased.

Rig Workers - having worked on the rigs for a while I have no qualms in saying that the workers out there deserve every cent that they get and most likely more, 12 hour days for two weeks at a time and then getting a week off and doing it again, working in all weather conditions, etc, etc... Might not have the education but in terms of a physically demanding job that has to be near the top of the list. Plus it is absolute hell on personal relationships.

Social Services - Involved in this as well and I hated it with a passion, put up with unimaginable crap and really got nothing out of it in terms of monitary compensation.

Artists - What other career do you really start making money after you have died?

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by Gravitykillr

...that worth $9 an hour to you? I wouldn't think so.

no, but if it wasnt worth $9.00 per hour to the person doing the work right now, they wouldnt be doing the job.

is the company holding a gun to their head too? quit if the pay doesnt equate with the work. its a simple concept.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

Then those people shouldn't be teachers when it comes down to it. If you want to be a teacher, do it for the right reasons, and if the money is good enough to be a nice bonus, then great.

True but there is a large stigma within society that money is the most important thing even over doing what you love.

I remeber around the time when I graduated from high school how many people I talked to (usually considerably older than me) told me, "pick a job and start earning as soon as you can, and then start saving for retirement." Their attitude was that between 18 and 64 was the boring lead up to the exciting age of 65 when I could relish in all my boring unfilling work of the past 46 years. Needless to say I didn't follow their advice.

[iggypop]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Yeah average starting wage of $50,000+.

Its actually $67,000 to start as of this year in Calgary

[V]

Originally Posted by iggypop

Its actually $67,000 to start as of this year in Calgary

That is completely false. Take a look at the APEGGA Salary Survey for proof if you like. I know a couple of early P. Eng's in the consulting business that make less than 65k. And this isn't out of line with table 5a of the Salary Survey.

http://www.apegga.org/pdf/SalarySurvey/SSH_06.pdf

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by skins

Engineers are underpaid

Business majors are overpaid (they coast on all the money the engineers make for them)

Particularly in the oil industry

Yah, ok there buddy. Considering all the engineers (real engineers and not the technicians that come out of SAIT, cuz they don't count) I know started at 50+ after grad, and once they get their P.Eng, make close to if not over the 6 digit figure, they're really underpaid there. Even the technicians get potentially around 60K. Couple that with insane benefits in the oil industry, and I seriously question whether your post was in jest or not.

[yahoo]

Originally Posted by MJK

Teachers are underpaid IMO considering the amount of work they have to do on their spare time. The work involved outside of school is unreal.

Yes definitely, teachers are underpaid all over the world..

[Superflyer]

Another profession is IT. One of the main reasons here is that IT gets no respect. Almost every business needs them and yet they give them no respect as a profession. People still think that they are a bunch of geeks that have nothing better to do all day but work on a computer.
I am lucky now, I finally got into a job where I am respected for what I do. They realize that if we were not here they would be trying to figure out well pressures and transit rates with a pencil, paper and calculator. But before I started where I am IT sucked, when the network and computers were up and running fine (which was about 98% of the time) we were told that we were useless cause everything was fine, but when something went down we were told that we were useless because things were ALWAYS broken.

[Superflyer]

As a question to the teachers out there, what do you do on pro-d days. THis is one of the things that I see people complain about, "Oh another pro-d day, I guess the teachers need another day off..." I think that if what happens on these days is explained then people would lay off on that, cause I am sure that it is not just a day off.....right?
Also just to say I think that teachers are very important and deserve to be paid well, I would not be where I am if it was not for a few special teachers that helped me along the way.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

As a question to the teachers out there, what do you do on pro-d days. THis is one of the things that I see people complain about, "Oh another pro-d day, I guess the teachers need another day off..." I think that if what happens on these days is explained then people would lay off on that, cause I am sure that it is not just a day off.....right?
Also just to say I think that teachers are very important and deserve to be paid well, I would not be where I am if it was not for a few special teachers that helped me along the way.

I'm sure the teachers can explain this better. But I think they usually have staff meetings, time for lesson planning etc. My mother tells me she is usually at school longer on a PD day.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Superflyer

As a question to the teachers out there, what do you do on pro-d days. THis is one of the things that I see people complain about, "Oh another pro-d day, I guess the teachers need another day off..." I think that if what happens on these days is explained then people would lay off on that, cause I am sure that it is not just a day off.....right?
Also just to say I think that teachers are very important and deserve to be paid well, I would not be where I am if it was not for a few special teachers that helped me along the way.

Quite often there are a number of things you can attend. There might be a new program being introduced next year, say a new component of Math 30, perhaps a complete make over of some subject, then those teachers involved would meet with department heads whatever and you go over the changes and how it will affect your lesson plans, what new textbooks will be introduced, etc. Or perhaps the government will be adding more testing and then you have to see at what grade levels, see what they are testing for, how it will affect your lesson plans again, those type of things.

On the other hand, there might be something planned on special needs children. There might be something on new teaching aids, new approaches to teaching, whatever.

Sometimes of course, you might choose to stay within your own school and address internal problems etc.

When teachers' convention, same thing as any other profession. Key note speakers are brought in and you pick and choose which you wish to hear, it all depends on what you are teaching or what you wish to address. Just keep in mind that PD (professional development) days and teachers conventions keep to the same principles as any other profession, they address innovations or problems within the field you are working.

Now where the public gives teachers flack is these PD days usually extend a weekend. Then the general public thinks, they arent doing any development, they are just extending their time off for a long weekend and they have hit the hills skiing.

But the public has themselves to blame for that. When first introduced, PD days were any old day of the week. Hmmnnn, care to gather your thoughts and think what parents thought of that? It went something along the lines of "Geez, dont teachers know we work during the week, now I have to go and arrange baby sitting and how can I do that in the middle of the week?" Or else it was, "well, if you are gonna have those PD days, why dont you do it on a day that hits a weekend (ie: Friday or Monday ) so we can plan family activities for those days!!!"

Dont forget, teachers are not your babysitters, teachers are educators!!!

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by OilersBaby

I have a BSc in Computer Science and am halfway done with an MSc in Nutrition.

So, you're going to be able to tell us what computers we should be eating?