Click here to return to the main UFT web site
Click here to return to the main UFT web site
masthead
success union money health growth

The UFT’s contract with the city and DOE sets your pay rate and many of your working conditions.

Only UFT members can vote on a contract proposal. If you’re not a member, join!

Questions about differentials, salary or your paycheck?
Contact your UFT chapter leader or a salary rep at your UFT borough office.

How to Read Your Pay Stub

 Want more details about DOE tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness programs?

Now you can get salary credit for your experience up to eight years! See your payroll secretary or chapter leader.

Need a master’s degree? Talk to the Teacher Center about their degree programs offered through area colleges and universities.

Your Salary

As a teacher, you’re motivated by idealism, a desire to help children succeed and a love of learning. You work hard, far beyond the hours school is in session, to provide your students with the best education you can.
Most assuredly, you deserve to be paid well for your efforts, as well as to have suitable benefits and good working conditions.

The UFT’s contract with the city and the DOE is the linchpin of your financial benefits. Through unrelenting effort and union solidarity spanning 47 years, the UFT has negotiated higher salaries, excellent health benefits and a pension that others envy. Since 2002, salaries have increased by 43 percent.

It hasn’t been easy, because the employer always has its own priorities, which don’t necessarily coincide with ours. But when the UFT’s Negotiating Committee reaches a tentative agreement, union members get to vote and the agreement takes effect only if a majority ratifies it.

Here’s a look at your salary package:

How Much Will I Earn?

The amount of your paycheck depends on:

  • The salary schedule that the union and the city negotiates in the contract.
  • How long you have been teaching.
  • Credits and degrees you earn beyond your bachelor’s degree.

As you can see in the charts in the Appendix (pages 42 – 44), the salary schedule is complex. It allows you to increase your earnings as you gain experience and accumulate graduate credits and a master’s degree. New teachers with different educational credentials and amounts of prior experience may start at different rates of pay.

The chart below shows three common examples of starting annual salaries.

Teacher Salary
Step		 Differential Currentl pay
as of
May 19, 2008
BA degree,
no experience 		1A C1 $45,530
Master's degree,
no experience 		1A C2+PD $51,425
Master's degree,
8 years credited experience 		8B C6+PD $74,797

Maximize Your Earnings

You can increase your earnings, above and beyond the contractual starting salary, in three ways:

1. Qualify for differentials. Salary differentials are based on academic credits that you earn beyond your bachelor’s degree. Each differential can add thousands of dollars to your annual earnings — permanently — and cumulative differentials can make a big difference in your earning power. Differentials include those for completing:

  • 30 credits beyond the bachelor’s degree including undergraduate credits(C2).
  • 60 credits beyond the BA (C2+ID known as the intermediate differential).
  • A master’s degree or 36 credits in an approved subject matter area (C2+PD, known as the promotional differential).
  • 30 credits beyond a master’s degree (C6+PD). You also qualify for C6+PD by earning certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Differentials are not automatically awarded. You must apply for them within six months of completing your coursework.

  • Differentials are paid as of Feb. 1, July 1 and Sept. 1, respectively, for work you’ve completed in the previous fall, spring and summer semesters.
  • For example, if you complete your coursework by Jan. 31 and file by July 31, the DOE will pay your differential in the fall semester with arrears back to Feb. 1.

2. Move through the salary steps. You’ll earn more money the longer you stay in the system.

  • For the first eight years, these are called “steps. If you teach without interruption, you will move two steps (e.g. 1A and 1B) for each year you work, increasing your earnings up to Step 8B.
  • You will automatically receive pay increases based on salary steps on your anniversary date and on March 1.
  • After your fifth year and at intervals thereafter, you will receive “longevity increments — also called “longevities. These come after you have taught in New York City for 5, 10, 13, 15, 18, 20 and 22 years. (The five-year longevity is a new addition to the contract which the UFT demanded to help retain newer teachers in the system.)

3. Apply for prior service salary credit. If you taught in another school system, worked as a regular or per diem substitute in the New York City system or, for certain licenses, had nonteaching experience related to your license area, you may qualify for salary credit and placement on a step above 1A. You must apply for credit within six months. At the UFT’s urging, the DOE increased the amount of credit you can receive for prior experience. Now you can start at anywhere up to Step 8B. That means that as of May 2008, someone with eight years of credited experience and 30 credits above a master’s degree would start at $74,797.

Problems with Your Paycheck?

Delays in getting paid, errors in the payment amount and other paycheck problems sometimes cause new teachers headaches, especially when bills for housing, transportation and courses are piling up.

The UFT can help you cut through the red tape and resolve paycheck problems with the DOE.

It should take the DOE one pay period (two weeks) to get a newly hired teacher on the payroll.

Delays are less common today, since the UFT lobbied successfully for a law that requires the DOE to pay interest. Here’s what to do if problems occur:

No paycheck. First, be sure you have a DOE file number; you cannot be paid without one.

  • If you do not have a file number, see your payroll secretary, and alert your UFT chapter leader.
  • If you need an emergency check to tide you over until your regular check arrives, see your payroll secretary and chapter leader.

Paycheck does not include prior service or differentials. It takes some time for the DOE to review and approve a new teacher’s application for differentials or salary credit for prior service.

  • As long as you have applied within six months of being appointed and are approved, you will receive the extra pay you are owed retroactively to your date of appointment.
  • If you are not paid by the first pay day after 30 days following your application, the DOE must pay you 6 percent interest.
  • Consult your chapter leader or a salary rep at your UFT borough office if you do not hear from the DOE or receive the added pay after two or three months.

Other errors. f you think you are not being paid the correct amount, see your school payroll secretary and your chapter leader. For further help, call your UFT borough office and ask to speak to a salary representative.

Direct Deposit

Teachers can have their pay checks deposited directly into their personal savings or checking account through the department’s Electronic Fund Transfer Program. You can enroll between September and April. It takes two payroll periods after enrollment for direct deposit to begin. On paydays you will receive a payroll stub indicating the amount of the deposit.

Teachers can enroll online at http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/DFOPayrollAdministration.You can also download the form and submit it directly to the department’s Payroll Division, ETP Unit, 65 Court Street, Room 1003, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

Note: As of the 2007-2008 school year the Department required all new hires to use direct deposit but they have not implemented it as of this printing.

Next page
Back to top
Previous page