PORTLAND STATE STUDY  COMPARES SALARIES, BENEFITS IN NORTHWEST SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Researchers from Portland State University Center for Public Service contacted District officials last year and asked us to participate in a study of  Total Employer Cost of Compensation (TECC). We were curious about how Boise's salaries and benefits stacked up against other northwest districts, and agreed to participate. The participating districts were Seattle and Vancouver in Washington , Portland, Salem - Keizer, Lake Oswego, Beaverton, and Hillsboro in Oregon, and Boise. The Center for Public Service used the study to test their methodology in calculating total staffing costs in districts, using data from the 2015-16 school year.

We have summarized a few of the study's findings in several charts. Let's have a look at what Portland State's team found about salaries and Total Cost of Compensation.

Annual Salaries

The Portland State staff did not look at average salaries among teachers in each district; instead, they examined salaries for placement at certain points along the salary schedule in each district. We've included their data for six of the eight districts, leaving out Hillsboro and Lake Oswego.

Here's what the researchers found about first year placement in each of the districts - that's placement for a new teacher with only a Bachelor's degree in 2015-16.

Seattle's entry level placement was by far the highest among the districts included herein. Otherwise, Portland, Salem and Beaverton were in the high 30k range, and Boise and Vancouver in the mid 30's.

It's important to note here that, according to Sperling and other estimates of cost of living differences, Boise has the lowest cost of any of the cities included in the study. In Sperling's analysis, the other areas are this much more expensive than Boise: Salem +5%, Vancouver +11%, Beaverton +29%, Portland +37%, and Seattle +72%. We also understand that many teachers in these districts (and in Boise) may not live in the district in which they teach. Cost of housing is the most differentiated cost among the cities; for example, the cost of housing in Seattle is 189% higher than that of Boise, on average.

At the Master's degree level with 10 years experience, the gap widened between Boise and Vancouver and the other districts in the study. For example, while Boise's entry level salary was 7% lower than that of Portland, at this mid-career level it was 20% lower.

For the MA Plus and 30 years category, the Portland State researchers used the highest salary on the schedule, exclusive of any PhD category the district might have included on its schedule.

The Portland State researchers noted: "Between the 10th and 30th years of service, teachers who earn additional graduate credits and reach the top step (short of a PhD) see comparatively similar rises in base salary. The two steepest differences – about 40% – between Mid-career and Latter-stage salary, based on the current salary schedules, are found in Seattle and Vancouver. The other five districts generally show about a 30% change in salary between these two milestones..." 

Total Cost of Compensation

In calculating Total Cost of Compensation (TECC), the researchers looked at a number of categories the most important of which were:

• Base salaries
• Employer Paid Health Insurance Costs
• Retirement Related Costs Borne by the District
• The Value of Paid Time Off

Here are the data presented in the study in terms of TECC for MA Pus 30 year employees by district:

So, for example, while Portland paid teacher salaries at the MA Plus level and 30 years of about 14% higher than Boise, the Total Cost of Compensation for this category in Portland was about 30% higher.

Why the dramatic difference? Health insurance and retirement costs are much higher for the Portland District. In 2015-16, Portland's cost for employee health insurance for MA Plus 30 year teachers was $16,385 per teacher, while for the Boise District it was $7,320. As for retirement, in Portland it was $15,921 while in Boise it was $11,946. In fact, Boise's costs for all categories for these veteran teachers were less than any other district in the study, except for Vancouver, where the base salary was slightly higher for Boise teachers (see page 11 of the study).

The most demographically similar district to Boise in the study was Vancouver, Washington which has about the same number of students, and similar poverty percentages among its student population. However, Vancouver has about 250 fewer teachers, and substantially higher class sizes than Boise.