Hawaii substitute teachers will get two sets of pay increases starting July 1 to keep pace with the collectively bargained raises awarded to public school teachers.
The higher pay for substitutes — who are not represented by the Hawaii State Teachers Association — will cost the state an estimated $950,000 annually for school years 2014-2015 and 2016-2017, according to a memo presented Tuesday to the Board of Education.
The approximately 4,800 substitute teachers on the Department of Education’s payroll will see 3.2 percent daily wage increases for those years. The last time substitutes received a pay increase was January 2009.
The raises mirror what was approved for HSTA teachers for those two years.
Under a state law that took effect in 2008, the Board of Education is required to provide wage adjustments for substitute teachers that are comparable to across-the-board wage adjustments negotiated for unionized teachers.
The HSTA’s 2013-2017 contract in its first year restored a 5 percent pay cut made in 2009 for the union’s 13,500 teachers. Teachers will see salary boosts of 3.2 percent and 3 percent in alternating years from across-the-board increases and pay grade step-ups, respectively. Raises will be tied to performance evaluations beginning July 1, 2015.
The per diem rates for substitutes will increase for each of the three classes of substitute teachers:
» Class I (high school graduates who do not hold a bachelor’s degree): From $135.20 for a full workday to $139.53 next year and $143.99 in two years.
» Class II (college graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher, but not in teaching or education): From $147.10 for a full workday to $151.81 next year and $156.67 in two years.
» Class III (DOE teachers, licensed teachers or those with a college degree in education): From $159 for a full workday to $164.09 next year and $169.34 in two years.
The BOE’s Human Resources Committee did not publicly discuss the increases before voting to recommend them to the full board for approval.
"Any given day, about 10 percent of kids are being taught by a substitute. There’s a fairness aspect to this that substitutes should be paid comparable wages," said state Rep. Roy Takumi (D, Pearl City-Waipio-Pearl Harbor), chairman of the House Education Committee.
Substitute teacher pay here is among the highest in the country, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Statewide, Hawaii pays substitutes on average $21.26 an hour, ranking second only to Alaska ($21.46). The 2013 national hourly mean was $14.11.
Competitive pay for substitutes was the subject of a 2002 class-action lawsuit that claimed the state failed to calculate substitute teachers’ wages correctly and didn’t come through on pay raises for years.
The lawsuit played out in the courts for more than a decade before a state judge late last year gave final approval of a $14 million settlement for back-pay claims for approximately 10,000 substitute teachers. Payments — ranging from a few hundred dollars to nearly $20,000 — went out in March.
