Community News
QUEENS PUBLIC SCHOOL
TEACHERS
GET PAY INCREASE
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I NOVEMBER 2018 25
BY NAEISHA ROSE
Public school teachers
in Queens and across
the city will soon get a
much-needed raise.
On Nov. 4, the United
Federation of Teachers
(UFT) announced that its members overwhelmingly
ratified a new contract with
the city providing teachers with a 7.7
percent pay increase over the course of
43 months, according to UFT President
Michael Mulgrew.
“I want to thank the members of the
UFT for their resounding support of
this contract. The new agreement gives
teachers a larger voice in how their
schools are run, and shows what we can
accomplish when we stand together,”
Mulgrew said.
Roughly 90,000 UFT members, or 87
percent, voted in favor of the contract,
according to the Nov. 6 announcement
from the union. Starting salaries over
the course of the deal will increase
to $61,070, while more experienced
teachers will see their base pay rise
to $128,657.
The current starting salary for new
teachers entering with a bachelor’s degree
is as low as $56,711, and teachers
with a master’s degree and over
22 years of experience make up to
$119,472, according to Alison Gendar,
a UFT spokeswoman.
Effective Feb. 14, 2019, wages will
increase by 2 percent. The following
year there will be a 2.5 percent increase
and in 2021, there will be a 3 percent
raise for the 43-month contract – for
a total of 7.7 percent in compounded
wage increases, according to Michelle
Herman, another spokeswoman at UFT.
The UFT contract with the city is
worth $2.1 billion and will extend into the
fiscal year 2022, according to Councilman
I. Daneek Miller, who is the chair
of the Committee on Civil Service and
Labor.
“This agreement demonstrates that
good faith negotiations yield positive and
equitable gains for all parties,” Miller said
back in October following the preliminary
Photo via Shutterstock
agreement phase of the contract.
In October, Mayor Bill de Blasio said
that he was happy to get the door closed
on the negotiations between the city
and the teacher’s union, and was looking
forward to what the contract would
mean for students.
“We’ve set ourselves on a path in this
city to ensure that we will be the fairest
big city in America,” de Blasio said. “One
of the most essential components of that
is making sure that every child gets a
good education regardless of ZIP code
and the way to do that is a partnership
between our school system and our
educators for the good of all.”
The American Arbitration Association
tallied the votes, according to the UFT.
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