I found this article amusing, particularly in its assumption that somehow the low pay of instructors is new or limited to CUNY, as seen in the closing comment, "in New York City in 2006, the joke isn’t so funny anymore."
I've got news for you, NY Press -- $35k is pretty good money for an instructor. It's interesting how many people think professors are pulling down well in excess of six figures.
h/t Arts & Letters Daily
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Actually, I think local cost of living has to be taken into consideration. Nowhere near NYC is 35k/annum a livable wage, and by 'livable' I don't mean lower-upper middle class lifestyle, I mean a rented roof, food, and transportation to work. First year high school teachers in NYC and its environs typically make about 40k/annum. That's just barely doable for a single person who isn't afraid of questionable neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up in the NYC area, I thought that the government's rule that people spend about 30% of their income on housing was just for rich people. After my BA, I taught in secondary school, was lucky enough to find a place I could rent for 1,400/month (even though the landlord was extremely lax about fixing things), and drove a car older than most college students. I still had trouble making the bills. Now I live in another area, where there is affordable housing just outside the local "city," and I'm able to pay my bills on time and without doing overtime shifts at a second job. (I still have the car. It's a point of pride now.)