Understanding Teacher Retention and Turnover: The Role of Salary and Benefits

Teachers are very significantly related to the quality of education and student performance, and therefore, teacher attrition and mobility have significant effects. Positive and negative impacts are realized in the following ways: In the long run, student learning and achievement are impacted in that different facets are affected due to high teacher turnover rates. It also stresses the relevance of school and district interests in the factors related to such concerns (Aulia & Haerani, 2023). There are a multitude of things that influence the decisions a teacher makes, and money is just one of them. There have been various findings of studies that supported the idea of the significance of reasonable pay and precise description of the perks in order to have a stable and satisfied group of teachers.

What Is The Impact of Salary and Benefits on Teacher Retention?

A significant body of research demonstrates that competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits play a pivotal role in teacher retention. Studies conducted by the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have consistently shown that educators are more likely to remain in their profession when they feel adequately compensated for their work.

Ei360 The Impact of Salary and Benefits on Teacher Retention

What about Fair Compensation?

Like all professionals, teachers should also receive a pay option that fits the qualifications, experience, skills, and workload of the duties assigned to them. Research has proved that if teachers are paid low salaries, then they have to move to better-paid jobs. (Chambers Mack et al., 2019). These teachers can be underestimated, hence the turnover of teachers due to poor pay.

Variability Across Districts

Numerous schools and districts in the country propose different wages and payments to their teachers. For instance, findings indicate that teachers in low-paid districts definitely change their employment as compared to those working in higher-paid regions (Trovato et al., 2022). This difference shows the need for valuable compensation so that quality teachers can be retained and there will be no more turnovers.

Job Satisfaction

This paper has highlighted that pay structure has an essential but somewhat central part to play in retaining teachers and achieving their satisfaction. Teachers who believe that they reaped good pay are also more likely to remain and continue their jobs (Agirreazkuenaga, 2019). On the other hand, turnover is correlated with dissatisfaction since the teachers leave their jobs and look for better-paying positions. Hence, fair compensation is necessary for teachers to minimize the problem of turnover in their organizations.

The Role of Benefits in Teacher Decision-Making

Retention of teachers is also determined by the increase in almost all aspects of teacher remuneration apart from fair compensation, such as retirement plans, medical insurance, and professional development amenities. Research has indicated that if benefits are not provided or are insufficient, there is a possibility of employee turnover since educational positions are benefit-protected and highly remunerated (Khan et al., 2020). Consequently, to promote employer support and recognition of teachers, benefits given to teachers are most important.

Perceived Support

In case a teacher receives an extensive benefits package offer, the teacher is likely to interpret his/her employer to be supportive and provide benefits appropriate for the teacher. That perception can keep them coming to work with a positive attitude. Hence, they may not seek other jobs elsewhere (Soares et al., 2021). Sufficient incentives also enforce security to the teachers by ensuring that they do not look for other opportunities in other institutions.

Conclusion

Among all compensation elements, the most significant for teaching employees’ decision to stay or leave are salary and benefits. Teacher job satisfaction studies have pointed out that teachers should be given reasonable wages and affordable packages to enable them to stick to their duties. Teachers who are well-paid and provided with a good benefits package will have reasonable job satisfaction and will not seek other jobs, hence reducing the turnover rate. Mitigating these facts remains crucial for the stable functioning of the teaching personnel, which in turn positively affects the educators and, therefore, students.

 References

Agirreazkuenaga, L. (2019). Embedding Sustainable Development Goals in Education. Teachers’ Perspective about Education for Sustainability in the Basque Autonomous Community. Sustainability, 11(5), 1496. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11051496

 Aulia, N., & Haerani, I. (2023). Teacher Retention and Turnover: Exploring the Factors that Influence Teacher Decision-Making. Journal of Education Review Provision/Journal of Education Review Provision, 2(2), 36–42. https://doi.org/10.55885/jerp.v2i2.155

 Chambers Mack, J., Johnson, A., Jones-Rincon, A., Tsatenawa, V., & Howard, K. (2019). Why do teachers leave? A comprehensive occupational health study evaluating intent-to-quit in public school teachers. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/jabr.12160

 Khan, A., Bibi, S., Lorenzo, A., Lyu, J., & Babar, Z. U. (2020). Tourism and development in developing economies: A policy implication perspective. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041618

Soares, P., Rocha, J. V., Moniz, M., Gama, A., Laires, P. A., Pedro, A. R., Dias, S., Leite, A., & Nunes, C. (2021). Factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Vaccines, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9030300

Trovato, M. R., Shen, C., Sheng, T., Shi, X., Fang, B., Lu, X., & Zhou, X. (2022). The Relationship between Housing Price, Teacher Salary Improvement, and Sustainable Regional Economic Development. https://doi.org/10.3390/land