{"id":170966,"date":"2026-02-09T22:54:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/170966\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T22:54:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:54:50","slug":"san-francisco-teachers-make-79468-for-184-days-of-work-strike-for-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/170966\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco teachers make $79,468 for 184 days of work, strike for more"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc10.com\/article\/news\/local\/california\/san-francisco-public-schoolteachers-strike-over-wages-and-health-benefits\/616-a1affeb9-7a92-4f6a-9a2b-558345215ee2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">went on strike<\/a> on Monday, shutting down the San Francisco Unified School District&#8217;s 120 schools and robbing 50,000 children of their regularly scheduled education.<\/p>\n<p>The strike is the first one in 50 years, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc10.com\/article\/news\/local\/california\/san-francisco-public-schoolteachers-strike-over-wages-and-health-benefits\/616-a1affeb9-7a92-4f6a-9a2b-558345215ee2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reports<\/a> ABC10, and will continue &#8220;until we win the schools our students deserve and the contracts our members deserve,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/feb\/09\/san-francisco-teachers-strike\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> UESF President Cassondra Curiel at a Monday press conference. Curiel&#8217;s statement suggests that the district is taking advantage of union members, but the current contract is already quite generous.<\/p>\n<p>Fully credentialed K\u201312 teachers (those with a bachelor&#8217;s degree) who are in their very first year of service had a base salary of $73,689 as of January 1, 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfusd.edu\/information-employees\/labor-relations\/labor-partners\/uesf-certificated#78271\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according<\/a> to school district data. These teachers receive an additional $1,897 from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfusd.edu\/learning\/new-approaches-learning\/qtea-innovation-impact-awards\/impact-awards\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Quality Teacher and Education Act<\/a> (2008), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfusd.edu\/learning\/new-approaches-learning\/qtea-innovation-impact-awards\/impact-awards\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">billed<\/a> as rewarding schools for improving student achievement, and $3,882 from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfusd.edu\/about-sfusd\/sfusd-news\/press-releases\/2022-06-29-sf-board-education-adopts-plan-and-budget-2022-23-school-year\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fair Wages for Educators Act<\/a> (2020), which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spur.org\/voter-guide\/2020-11\/sf-prop-j-schools-parcel-tax\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">instituted<\/a> a parcel tax to increase teachers&#8217; salaries by 7 percent, <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1lBrDPX0DIocI2knd_Fnfe4X3r76m_C0P\/view\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">amounting<\/a> to a total effective salary of $79,468.<\/p>\n<p>Earning nearly $80,000 as a starting yearly salary is a healthy sum by any reasonable standard: The average American made approximately $62,608 last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/pdf\/wkyeng.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">per<\/a> the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1lBrDPX0DIocI2knd_Fnfe4X3r76m_C0P\/view\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">official salary schedule<\/a>, the unionized teacher works only 184 days a year. This means that they make nearly $432 per day. The median per capita income in San Francisco was $92,289 from 2020 to 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/quickfacts\/fact\/table\/sanfranciscocitycalifornia\/PST045224#:~:text=Table%20;%20Median%20households%20income%20(in%202024,dollars)%2C%202020%2D2024%20%C2%B7%20Persons%20in%20poverty%2C%20percent.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to the U.S. Census Bureau<\/a>. Assuming the median San Franciscan works <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paycheckcity.com\/insights\/how-many-working-days-are-in-a-year#:~:text=In%20the%20U.S.%2C%20the%20average,in%20one%20year%20is%20260.&amp;text=How%20many%20days%20%2D%20not%20including,can%20change%20depending%20on%20year.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">260 days a year<\/a>, that would mean they make $355 per day\u2014nearly 20 percent less than a new UESF K\u201312 teacher.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to their salary, United Educators members&#8217; fringe benefits included monthly contributions of up to $373.72 per month for family health insurance coverage under their <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/119FpZ_9xwvHtD1E-NW-VspsWtlPovoRN\/view?usp=sharing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">preceding contract<\/a> (July 2023\u2013June 2025). Setting aside the fewer days worked by teachers as opposed to other civilian workers, this is substantially less than the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/opub\/ted\/2025\/family-coverage-medical-care-premiums-cost-employers-in-small-firms-1232-59-in-march-2024.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">average monthly employer contribution<\/a> of $1,232.59 to family coverage, or $14,791.08 per year.<\/p>\n<p>In light of this fact, the union succeeded in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc10.com\/article\/news\/local\/california\/san-francisco-public-schoolteachers-strike-over-wages-and-health-benefits\/616-a1affeb9-7a92-4f6a-9a2b-558345215ee2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">extracting<\/a> the concession of &#8220;an annual allowance of $24,000 for teachers to choose their health care plan.&#8221; Additionally, the district <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc10.com\/article\/news\/local\/california\/san-francisco-public-schoolteachers-strike-over-wages-and-health-benefits\/616-a1affeb9-7a92-4f6a-9a2b-558345215ee2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">offered<\/a> the union a 6 percent wage increase to be phased in over the course of three years.<\/p>\n<p>Neither of these concessions satisfied the union, which <a href=\"https:\/\/uesf.org\/news\/bargaining-updates\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has sought<\/a> a 9 percent raise over two years, which would cost the school district an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc10.com\/article\/news\/local\/california\/san-francisco-public-schoolteachers-strike-over-wages-and-health-benefits\/616-a1affeb9-7a92-4f6a-9a2b-558345215ee2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">additional $92 million per year<\/a>, reports ABC10, even though the district is already running a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfusd.edu\/about-sfusd\/budget-and-lcap\/budget-faqs-and-definitions\/budget-faqs-budget-development\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$102 million deficit<\/a>. The UESF is also seeking fully paid family coverage on a Kaiser Permanente health plan and protections against AI replacement.<\/p>\n<p>Only <a href=\"https:\/\/caaspp-elpac.ets.org\/caaspp\/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&amp;lstTestYear=2025&amp;lstTestType=B&amp;lstGroup=1&amp;lstSubGroup=1&amp;lstGrade=13&amp;lstSchoolType=A&amp;lstCounty=38&amp;lstDistrict=68478-000&amp;lstSchool=0000000\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">53.2 percent and 46 percent<\/a> of students at noncharter schools met or exceeded English and math proficiency levels, respectively, in the 2024\u20132025 school year in the San Francisco Unified School District. A decrease of <a href=\"https:\/\/caaspp-elpac.ets.org\/caaspp\/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&amp;lstTestYear=2019&amp;lstTestType=B&amp;lstGroup=1&amp;lstSubGroup=1&amp;lstGrade=13&amp;lstSchoolType=C&amp;lstCounty=38&amp;lstDistrict=68478-000&amp;lstSchool=0000000&amp;lstFocus=a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3.32 percentage points and 4.58 percentage points<\/a> from the 2018\u20132019 school year (the earliest period for which data are available). Instead of protesting for even higher salaries and cushy health care plans, San Francisco teachers should focus on doing a better job educating children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) went on strike on Monday, shutting down the San Francisco Unified&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-170966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-san-francisco","10":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","11":"tag-san-francisco-news","12":"tag-sf","13":"tag-sf-headlines","14":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}