Teachers in North Carolina are among the only state employees who do not receive longevity pay.
And bills to reinstate it have been introduced and crushed in committee – by the same people who took longevity pay away in the first place.
Classified public school employees are among some of the only state employees to not make a $15/hour minimum wage.
From a 2018 N&O report:
And teachers are among some of the only state employees who are paid on a set salary schedule that does not carry a “minimum” and “maximum” pay range for experience and market viability.
From a recent salary plan report for NC:
What are CRR, JMR, and ARR? Well there is a “dictionary of career-banding terms.“
Oh, and there’s the MMR:
But those things do not apply to teachers. There really is no market for teachers outside of public schools that is sizable enough to compare, so the state gets to treat teachers differently. And they have.
When the market looks at advanced degrees and training as worthy of pay raises or increases in compensation, then the state would have to look at how it can “recuit” and “retain.”
But in the case of teachers, they took away graduate degree pay bumps.
To go along with no more longevity pay.
And that $15/hour minimum wage for classified school employees.
Imagine what that does for recruitment and retention.
caffeinated rage 
Consider too that under NCLB, teacher assistants were required in almost all NC school systems to have a two-year college degree or equivalent (NCDOL Journeyman’s Certificate, Workkeys Testing with additional PD hours, or NCATA Instructional Level III certificate). On the DPI pay grade scale, TAs are on pay grade 56. For comparison, a Grounds Keeper I is a 56. There are five levels of grounds keepers. A Painter I is a 59. There are three levels of painters. While I’m definitely not saying these two jobs deserve less pay, I do believe strongly that teacher assistants deserve increased pay based on the educational requirements required to be employed and the level of responsibility they have in helping educate our students. It’s been a slap in the face to classified school employees to be left out of the increase to $15 an hour which other state employees received in 2018.
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