Biggs, Andrew G., and Jason Richwine. “No, Teachers Are Not Underpaid.” City Journal, 2019, Web.
Andrew G. Biggs, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and Jason Richwine, a public-policy analyst, argue that, contrary to the common belief, teachers in most American states are not underpaid. Thus, teachers and general public are the intended audience of this source, but the article seems to specifically address those people who claim that teachers have low salaries in comparison to the private-sector workers. Biggs and Richwine provide several arguments against this statement: first, they claim that teachers already have market-level salaries and retirement benefits that exceed “those of private-sector workers” (Biggs and Richwine). The argument about teachers’ salaries being lower than those of the average college graduate is presented as invalid, since the main factors that determine salary scales are the supply and demand for skills. In addition, the authors present data that shows that teachers’ salaries are about 8 percent higher than the salaries in similar private-sector jobs.
This source will help to answer my research question or thesis because it argues against one of the most common observations about the salaries of public school teachers, which states that teachers are underpaid. According to Biggs and Richwine, there is considerable evidence that teachers receive market-level salaries, which are even exceeding the salaries of similar private-sector workers by 8 percent. This data will be useful in the analysis on the factors that influence the dimensions of teachers’ salaries.