Teachers In Michigan Earn More Money Under Right To Work Law
What were the union funded groups and economic “experts” saying about Michigan’s Right to Work law as it was being debated, well I will remind you.
Back in December of 2012, the then vice president of the union-funded Economic Policy Institute, Ross Eisenbrey was very critical of Michigan’s Right to Work law. Mr. Eisenbrey wrote the following:
Right–to-work-for-less laws are about nothing more than weakening unions, lowering wages, and freeing corporate America to turn back the clock on employee rights and regulation of labor standards
How about economic “experts”, what were they thinking and writing about the law? Well Don Grimes an economist from the University of Michigan questioned how much impact the right-to-work law will have on a Michigan resident’s income. The Michigan Capitol Confidential stated that Mr. Grimes said in an email:
I think [the] major impact of right to work will be on union revenue. Over a really long run, it might reduce wages a bit, but would also increase employment, so [its] effect on total personal income is going to be a combination of these two counteractions…But both wage gains and employment change are influenced by so many other factors, mostly much more important than right-to-work laws, that you would probably never be able to tease out a statistically meaningful effect on income.
Well we are able to “tease” out some very meaningful effect on income. Let us look at two people who were against the Right to Work law and voiced their opinion when they wrote a letter to the Detroit Free Press and the Free Press published them.
One of those letters came from a teacher from Howell Public Schools named Greg Talberg. In that letter he wrote:
Right-to-work legislation will have a devastating impact on the already shrinking Michigan middle class. We have a capitalist system based on greed. That’s not a criticism. It’s a fact…Without powerful unions, middle-class workers are powerless to demand fair wages and benefits.
What happened to Mr. Talberg’s salary after this disastrous Right to Work Law was passed. Well his total salary as a public school teacher had increased from $57,804 in 2013-14 to $71,351 in 2018-19. Wow that looks like such a “devastating impact” on him. That was only a 24% increase in his pay over 5 years, how is he actually able to live on that. Did any of you in private industry receive a 24% raise in that same time span? If you annualized his 2018-2019 pay of $71,351, that comes to approximately $89,000 a year. What I mean by annualized is it would take a salary or wage of $89,000 a year for someone who works year to clear $71,351 in 9 months.
Now let us look at another teacher who penned a letter and see how he was devastated by the passage of the Right to Work law. His name is Douglas Coates who teaches at Livonia Public Schools. He wrote:
The goal: Lower wages…Right-to-work legislation’s real purpose is to drive down the wages and benefits of all workers, union and non-union.
Well, let us see how much Mr. Coates salary was driven down. Back in 2013-14 school year he was paid $86,586 and that was lowered to $93,367 in the 2018-19 school year. Wait did I say lowered, well that is what Mr. Coates stated would happen. In his mind is an increase really a decrease, what is he a politician? Do these people actually teach this kind of math at our schools? If you annualized his 2018-2019 pay of $93,367 that comes to approximately $117,000 a year.
The moral of the story is do not believe most of what you hear in the news, check out who is actually saying what and listen to the Live with Renk show because I deal in facts not emotional outbursts.
The numbers never lie and will always come back to haunt you if you bet against them.
More From WKMI
