3.7% pay cut for DCPS teachers for SY 19-20

[Anonymous]

From DCPS email to teachers last week:

“School Year 2019-2020 begins one pay period later than the school year started for School Year 2018-2019. This results in 27 pay periods between the start of School Year 2018-2019 and start of School Year 2019-2020, rather than the typical 26 pay periods. As a result of this schedule, there would be a one pay period gap in all 10-month teachers' pay if no action is taken.

To ensure there is no gap in pay, we will start 10-month educators’ compensation for School Year 2019-2020 one pay period before you actually return to work on August 19 (the pay period from August 4-17), and your compensation for School Year 2019-2020 will be spread evenly across 27 paychecks through August 15, 2020. ”

[Anonymous]

How is this a pay cut? I don’t understand?

[Anonymous]

Every paycheck is reduced by 3.7 %

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every paycheck is reduced by 3.7 %

but there's an extra paycheck, right?

[Anonymous]

Interesting trick. How do you get 27 2-week pay periods in a calendar year?

[Anonymous]

They get paid for last school year; they get paid for next school year. But there is an extra week of unpaid summer vacation this year due to the shift in the school calendar.

They don’t get paid less for the coming school year, but their future work and earnings now all begin after an extra unpaid week — everything is just shifted a week later.

For that extra unpaid week, rather than leaving teachers with no paycheck, they are spreading pay for upcoming year out a little longer (and thinner) to cover the gap week.

Is it pay cut? Well, really it’s a shift in work schedule that means that teachers teach for one fewer weeks in calendar year 2019. The teachers still get paid for their work, but they are scheduled to work one week less..

It does mean a slight dip in expenses for DCPS for 2019. I have no idea if that had anything to do with the calendar shift or not.

[Anonymous]

What happens next year, do you end up with 25 pay periods in some future year?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a pay cut to me

[Anonymous]

They are being paid the same amount for the same amount of work, correct? It is just spread out differently. They are paid over the course of the summer even when they are not working.

This sort of thing happens every so many years, just like we have a 10 week summer break every so often. It is because a year isn’t precisely 52 weeks long.

[Anonymous]

It’s like the factory shut down for a week — nobody works, nobody gets paid* — but then everything goes back to normal. The workers don’t get a ‘pay cut,’ but they did miss out on a week of work and the associated pay.

[Anonymous]

It is actually unprecedented

[Anonymous]

Dcps teacher: please don’t spread false information. We have actually things we need support with, not this.
It’s NOT a paycut. We will get the same salary spread out over more paychecks.
Or- head to fairfax where you aren’t even paid in the summer.

[Anonymous]

So the same annual salary but over a period of time that longer than a calendar year. That’s a pay cut.

[Anonymous]

It’s not a period longer than a year. But be outraged if you want ik

[Anonymous]

So there are more than 52 weeks in the year? Just trying to understand.