Maddy Merrill

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The Merits of Merit Pay

A teacher plays a crucial role in a person’s education. When students enter the classroom

they often equate their feelings about a teacher to their feelings about education. A good

instructor can inspire a life-long love of learning, while a bad one may produce disinterested and

dispassionate students. Teachers hold a lot of influence, so why is it that they are so often

underappreciated and underpaid? One major cause is a seniority pay system where the longer a

teacher works at a school, the more they are paid. With a few exceptions, this salary structure is

the standard around the country, and has had detrimental effects on American schools and

students for years. Merit pay for teachers, on the other hand, improves quality of education by

incentivizing high-quality instruction, encourages the best of the young workforce to enter into a

career of teaching, and highlights the importance of an often underappreciated profession.

The United States’ education system has been faltering. While the country headlines the

list of most powerful nations in the world, it sits at unimpressive number 14 for top educational

systems (Lepi). The key to improving the quality of schools in America is improving the quality

of the teachers—who have been consistently identified as crucial to learning. With experienced

and dedicated educators, studies show that students “earn more and save more for retirement as

adults, are likelier to go to college, and go to better colleges than their peers with less

experienced teachers” (Matthews). Merit pay is a tool that can attract these high caliber

instructors, but can also encourage existing educators to go above and beyond for their students,

while boosting salaries. With teachers who are invested in creating a positive learning

environment students will be more prepared for their futures. Merit pay can also improve

efficiency and quality, as seen when it was implemented in other sectors like sales (Malanga).
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The same results can be seen in trial merit pay studies in schools. For example, in 2004, teachers

at an elementary school in Arkansas received bonuses ranging from $1,800 and $8,600 if they

could boost the test scores of their students, or reach other specified goals (Barnett and Ritter).

After the first two years of the project the school had “average gains of approximately seven

percentile points for students in mathematics and reading” (Barnett and Riter). With pay raises

on the line, teachers significantly shifted and improved their educational strategies, leading to

positive results. This competitive environment was beneficial to the students, helping them both

understand and retain content.

Merit pay doesn’t only improve the quality of instruction given by existing teachers, it

also helps attract new, promising educators. Currently in Maryland the average teacher starting

salary is $43,235 (Caffee). While this is by no means poor compensation, there are other

professions that pay more for fewer hours, attracting students fresh out of college. With a

seniority pay system, new teachers cannot receive monetary rewards for high achievement, and

are instead forced to wait, receiving small pay increases each year, until they reach the maximum

salary. Pay has become one of the top two factors for young people when it comes to selecting a

career (Miller). New members of the workforce may be “focused on compensation as they pay

off college loans and try to establish their savings so they can purchase homes and start

families,” leading them to look for higher paying jobs (Miller). With merit pay, teachers are

judged on how well they perform, not how long they have been working at a school. The

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development explains that “individuals who were

confident that they would thrive under a pay-for-performance arrangement would be more likely

to enter the profession,” boosting the quality of schools (Barnett and Ritter). Once the new
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teachers are in schools, bonuses associated with merit pay can help to retain teachers for years to

come. In North Carolina, when teachers got a $1,800 bonus, the turnover rate was reduced by 17

percent. The same results were seen in Florida, Tennessee, Colorado, and New York (“Why

Teacher Pay Matters”). It is clear that merit pay helps to attract the kinds of individuals that the

educational system needs, and reduces the amount of teachers who leave after only a few years.

Teaching is often hailed as one of the most underappreciated professions. For the

importance of the job they do, teachers are simply underpaid and not given the recognition or

status they deserve. Quite simply, there is no other profession where “a college-educated

individual [is] questioned, second-guessed, and blamed as much as teachers.” Paying teachers

more through a merit system could potentially shift the way people view the profession. Modern

culture tends to associate salary with value, so giving teachers the power to boost their pay

would likely increase their perceived importance, and the respect they receive. Rewarding

teachers for hard work is one of the best ways to show gratitude and thanks, however, “our

words...will always ring hollow if unions succeed in preventing us from using pay to show our

appreciation for teachers’ merit” (Longwell). While there are still barriers, changing the pay

system for teachers will allow them to not only gain higher salaries, but also be recognized for

what they are: highly-qualified professionals who are working diligently to make an impact on

the lives of students.

There have been plenty of attempts to fix the United States’ education system. Increasing

the number of charter schools, implementing new technologies, lowering class population, and

spending more money per student are a few of the many strategies that have yet to positively

impact schools and students. Putting a merit pay system into play is a solution that will work,
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pushing teachers to improve and helping students learn in so many ways. Teaching is a difficult

job to do and merit pay is one of the simplest ways to lower teacher stress. The saying goes that

money can’t buy happiness, but it can increase it. With more pay teachers will be happier and

mentally healthier. The stresses and anxieties that come with this demanding profession can be

eased by this extra compensation. Boosted morale and salary will ultimately help keep teachers

in schools and give them the sense of appreciation that they have so long lacked. After all, a

happy teacher makes happier students.

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Works Cited

Caffee, Alex. “Teacher Salaries in America.” Niche, 1 Sept. 2017,

articles.niche.com/teacher-salaries-in-america/.

Korman, Arik. “Teachers: The Most Important Part of Our Education System.” League of

Education Voters, 15 Sept. 2016, educationvoters.org/2016/09/15/teachers-the-most.

Lepi, Katie. “The Top 10 (And Counting) Education Systems In The World.” Edudemic, 23 May

2014, www.edudemic.com/learning-curve-report-education/.

Longwell, Sarah. “Want to Appreciate Teachers? Reward Them With Merit Pay.” The Daily

Breeze, 13 May 2012, www.pickthebrain.com/blog/the-truth-behind-your-self-worth/.

Malanga, Steven. “Why Merit Pay Will Improve Teaching.” City Journal, 2001,

www.city-journal.org/html/why-merit-pay-will-improve-teaching-12176.html.

Miller, Stephen. “Better Pay and Benefits Loom Large in Job Satisfaction.” Society for Human

Resource Management, www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/compensation/pages/.

Matthews, Dylan. “Does Teacher Merit Pay Work? A New Study Says Yes.” The Washington

Post, WP Company, 23 July 2012,

www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/07/23/does-teacher-merit-pay-work

Strauss, Valerie. “Why so Many Teachers Leave - and How to Get Them to Stay.” The

Washington Post, WP Company, 12 June 2015,

www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/06/12/why-so-many-teachers.

“Why Teacher Pay Matters: Recruitment and Retention Can Improve Results.” The 74 ,
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www.the74million.org/article/why-teacher-pay-matters-recruitment-and-retention-can-im

prove-results/.