Compensation

Unlike the Superintendent’s office, student-facing employees do not need consultants to tell us that compensation in Arlington is lagging significantly behind other neighboring districts. When APS proudly touts an average pay increase of 5.2% for teachers, it is factoring in a step increase (which we should be due every year) and a 3% COLA. The spending power of Arlington educators declined this year. If that’s what APS considers “focusing on compensation,” then we will continue to bleed talent to other districts and other industries. APS leadership should not be proud of this.

Competitive compensation is an essential part of retaining and recruiting the best staff.

See below for just how much APS teacher compensation has eroded in recent decades.

Any cost of living adjustment that is less than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a loss for employees. But the losses for Arlington educators relative to other industries have become more significant over time.

A 2022 study from the Economic Policy Institute explains how teachers in the early 1990s were, on average, paid about 5 percent less than college graduates in other professions. Today, they are paid close to 25 percent less. Though many people want to work in education, there’s a scarcity of qualified teachers who are “willing to work at current wages and under current working conditions.”