Colleagues,
Some questions that have come up about the contract information we sent out yesterday.
1) Reading the Salary Guides - There are two versions of the salary guides. The ones from the actual contract book and a progressions document we put together for the Building Reps and on our website to help people see more clearly where they are.
If you are looking at the contract book salary guides, you would trace them diagonally as you move up a step each year.
If you are looking at the salary progressions, you can just go horizontally across each line from your current base salary.
If you currently receive longevity or will receive longevity, those would be on top of the salaries you are seeing. If you have any questions, or would like us to run a salary progression for you showing what your salary would look like over the life of the contract, just email us at contract@newarkteachersunion.com
2) Health Benefits Waiver – While there is no longer additional compensation for staff who waive their health benefits, staff are still able to waive their health benefits (as long as they have alternate coverage through a spouse or other source) and, as a result, not have to contribute towards their health benefits.
3) Masters vs Universal – A few people have asked why the Traditional MA ends up being a few hundred dollars lower than the Universal guide by the end of the contract. The Universal guide is 2 steps longer than the Traditional MA throughout most of this contract, so that puts the top a little higher. There are also some places on the earlier steps where this happened, but there are few staff on the Traditional MA on the lower steps since that guide was only available for staff hired before the ratification of our 2012 contract.
In Solidarity,
Mike Maillaro
Director of Research and Communication
Newark Teachers Union