Justin Fisher: Supply and demand raises for teachers

The Dec. 16 editorial recommended “Pay N.C. teachers the market rate.” They want teachers paid like high-ranking state employees who received raises based on a salary survey comparing them to similar jobs in other states. That’s not market rate! It’s a system of never-ending raises.

When states paying average or less-than-average salaries move their employees up to the average or beyond, then other states become less than average. So they move their folks up. And so on.

Such a system is part of the justification for the obscenely high compensation for corporate CEOs, but it works for lesser elites as well.

A true market rate says we raise salaries when we can’t find enough qualified employees at the current wage level. That’s probably not what either the editors or the teachers really want.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Justin Fisher: Supply and demand raises for teachers."