STOKES COUNTY – A teacher in Stokes County penned a Facebook post to draw attention to low teacher pay, claiming he only makes $53 a day to educate. The post has now gone viral, having been shared thousands of times, and getting picked up by media all over North Carolina.
“I was hesitant to share this because it’s personal information but I’m at the point where some people just need to see the truth of my life, that I lead, as a 32 year old married father of one.
Last month, my take home pay was $1,715.81. I want to add that includes money taken out to pay for my daughters insurance and her childcare, lavish expenses I know, but necessities for my wife and my existence.
That was my pay for the whole month. That amount of money has to last me all the way until May 31st. I’m not a math wizard, as I am an English teacher, but when you divide that, I want you to know that I am roughly being paid $53 a day to educate your child. If you divide that by 8 hours, the amount a great deal of people think I work which in actual reality is nowhere near the amount I work, I will be making $6.69 an hour. In my state, NC, the minimum wage is currently $7.70.”
Even Gov. Roy Cooper shared the post, scoring some political points against a Republican General Assembly whose (fifth) teacher pay raise (in five years) comes in at six percent versus Cooper’s recommended eight percent.
No “math wizard,” indeed. It’s probably a good thing Mr. Brandes is an English Teacher, because his math is wrong.
Even if he was working 365 days a year, Mr. Brandes would take home $56.41 a day AFTER paying for health insurance and childcare deductions AND taxes.
Of course, he doesn’t work 365 days a year.
Assuming four, five day weeks (20 school days) in a month, that $1,715.81 would divide into $85.79 a day. AFTER taxes. After health insurance. AFTER retirement deductions.
(The employee contribution for state employees like teachers is six percent. The employer contribution for teachers in Stokes County is more than 17 percent (!).)
He points out that, by his math, he figures he makes less than minimum wage. The logic that minimum wage employees also pay payroll taxes does not occur to him.
The median wage in Stokes County is $42,489. Brandes says he has been teaching for 10 years, and with a base minimum for teachers set at $35,000, it would follow that he makes close to, or above the median wage for his county. Plus, his wife is a teacher, making it a two income household that very likely exceeds to median household income in that area.
It’s no surprise that Roy Cooper, or the other Democrats in the media, would share this story with out checking the math.
Democrats like Cooper are fans of Big Government spending schemes that, if enacted according to their stump speeches, would bankrupt the taxpayers of this state in the name of the “greater good.”
With high spending usually comes higher taxes.
Brandes’ complaint could resonate with quite a lot of people for entirely different reason than intended – taxes. And Republicans have been reducing those on the state and federal levels as well.
But Republicans hate the poor…and teachers…and kids, don’t you know? They have no compassion for teachers like Brandes, according to the Left.
We’re just glad Brandes is not teaching math.
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