Teacher salaries to range from $54,411 to $119,565 in new contract, UFT says

Starting salaries for a first-year New York City teacher will increase to $54,411 by 2018, up from $45,530 this year, according to a salary schedule released on Tuesday evening by the United Federation of Teachers.

The pay scale bump reflects an 18 percent raise that the UFT negotiated for members that dates back to 2009, when the union’s current contract expired. The proposed contract would extend to 2018.

The contract agreement, which still needs to be ratified by the UFT’s members, calls for a pay increase that is closer to 19.5 percent rise when the increases are compounded. The maximum salary for teachers will rise from $100,049 to $119,565, according to the salary schedule, which details how much teachers earn based on how many years they’ve been working and how many education credits they’ve accrued.

The retroactive raises, along with a series of back pay checks, will be delayed and spread out over several years—a compromise reached to ensure that the city could afford wage increases for the UFT, which constitutes almost 30 percent of all public employees in the city. That payment structure has provoked criticism from some union members, who have taken to UFT’s Facebook page to air their grievances.

“Give me my retro money now!” Susan Lupi Rau said in one of hundreds of comments that have flooded the UFT page in recent days.
UFT officials are working late into the night on Tuesday to get information about the proposed nine-year pact posted online so that members can begin to pore through all of the changes. Earlier on Tuesday, the UFT posted details about policy changes that will affect schools and classrooms. 

On Wednesday, the UFT’s 3,400-member delegate assembly will meet and vote to recommend the proposed contract to all 100,000 members.

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