Are teachers underpaid?
No. My father is a retired 40 year NYC Board of Education teacher. He was making a yearly salary of $150,000 a year and a great union with UFT! If you are starting out, then it would be around $45,000 fresh out of college at 22 or 23 with a teaching licence (which is pretty sweet). However, its mandatory to receive a masters to be tenured with the Board of Ed. BUT they will gladly pay for you for free. I'm a College Professor at Columbia & Hunter with dual masters and working on a Ph.D! I do very well, have great work dates and flexibility. Trust me. Being a Educater is wonderful. You help students and its a lifetime of loving rewards to help achieve your studentsgoals! Be a Teacher instead of a doctor. You don't have to go to school for over 10-12 years, you start really making any money at 32 where a teacher starts at 22, don't owe $200,000+ for medical school (which will take decades to pay off) large malpractice fees, licensing fees and in reality, the docs are the ones who are underpaid! My doctor said, "I should have went into education instead of medicine for the money that the insurance companies reimburse me with"!
Do you FEEL YOU ARE UNDERPAID for work?
If you are paying your bills and rent each month with the money you get from that one job and noticing that your bank account balance is not increasing a little by little, then you are not saving money that you will need in the event you lose that job and need time to find another one. Unemployment is like chicken feed compared to what you made at your job. It should supplement your savings. So if you see you ain't saving money after covering living costs and that one job is so demanding that you do not have the time or energy to either look or work for a second job each day, you need to ask your boss for a raise or you need to spend less on life's excesses. Things you do not need to replenish and rest your body for the next day of work. When they tell you they want to hire you over the phone or via email the ball is now in your court. Once you agree to contract terms the ball goes back into their court. Further they have already determined a maximum amount that they can pay you for your work. It is usually the market rate in your area as they have less time than you to research that sort of thing. You never want to leave money on the table because that extra cash will go straight to some other person's bank account who probably needs it less than you. They have a payroll budget that needs to be spent. If they have reserves at the end of the month people get bonuses. So do not worry that your initial request will be so unreasonable to them that they will rescind your offer. Sound firm and tell them you want a little more than the highest tier. There are outliers to any range. Try to be one.
Why are women being underpaid?
- Men are more aggressive in negotiating salary. - Men are more willing and statistically more likely to do overtime. - Single women earn 120% of what single men earn (yes it's true) - Women are much more likely to take part-time jobs or jobs that pay less. Stats can go on and on, but averages hide the truth. Average pay for women includes all part-time and full-time workers, and some studies even include non-working women. If you compare a part-time working woman with a full time working man in terms of averages, of course the picture will be that women earn less. And also, when you compare men and women working in the same job, women often out-earn men! Don't be fooled, and never take stats at face value. http://www.iwf.org/campus/show/18948.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtjaBQMog0Q http://www.freewebs.com/feminism-evaluated/ (section 3(a)) "Women's weekly earnings, including overtime, were lower than men's. This was partly because they worked fewer paid hours per week. ...Although median hourly pay provides a useful comparison between the earnings of men and women, it does not necessarily indicate differences in rates of pay for comparable jobs. Pay medians are affected by the different work patterns of men and women, such as the proportions in different occupations and their length of time in jobs" http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=167 And here's more food for thought on the issue: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0752118220071107?feedType=RSS&feedName=domest%20icNews&rpc=22&sp=true http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=621 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/nyregion/03women.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=8941c5442f49a9a4&ex=1343793600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
TEACHERS. Holy crap…teachers. A million times. Teachers.That so many of them have to function with 30+ class sizes, with little ability to control their curriculum, and everything depending for them on standardized test scores…That so many of them have to have second jobs just to make ends meet…That so many of them have to buy their own classroom supplies out of their own pockets…That they have to get up at like 5am to get to school, teach all day, then more likely than not also have to tutor or advise a club or coach a sport…That they have to put up with mouthy, disrespectful kids AND parents who blame the teacher every time? I’d get fired the first week.Then you have college professors who are donating blood because universities would rather hire adjuncts for $2500 per class (usually with a cap of two classes per semester), and no benefits.We ridiculously overpay our CEOs, our actors, our professional athletes. But the ones who interact with our young people every single day despite awful conditions and a system that keeps adding more responsibility while removing things like protections and pensions? At least in America, we are valuing the wrong things.I would gladly teach at the university level if it would pay me what I need. $2500 in total for a 10-week class: 30 hours spent in the classroom. 60 hours spent preparing materials. Another 40 for grading. Another 20 or so for office hours and tutoring. That’s around $16 an hour, and too many hours spent on it to get another job, and without benefits.Why do we expect our educators to do this? It’s wrong.
Tax preparer says we are getting $6000 refund?
As a couple people have suggested, you should review the return very carefully. $6,000 refunds are not unheard of with child tax credits, earned income credits, etc. but if its significantly more than anything you've ever received then you need to understand what has changed. You are responsible for what is on your tax return, even if you paid someone to help prepare it. It is your responsibility to review every line for accuracy and you should double check all the math. I suggest you download a free copy of a tax software like Turbo Tax. It will let you work through your return entirely free, they just make you pay for the software before you can submit the electronic return (or print the paper forms). You can use it as a way to double check the return that the preparer filed. If you get the same result, then the return is probably right. If you get something different, then ask questions to figure out what is wrong. You won't have to pay for the turbo tax software because you'll never actually submit your return through turbo tax, just use it as a good cross reference.
What will USPS do with my package if underpaid for the postage?
Happy Gramps is wrong. You can schedule a pickup with USPS, but it would be stupid to leave your package in a mailbox to be stolen. FAR more dangerous than leaving it with UPS employees. You don't need two scales. I don't know what planet HG lives on, but scales can weigh more than 2 pounds here on Earth. You do need to have one, though and that is how you make sure you don't miscalculate postage. As Roddy said, the package can be returned to you or sent to the buyer postage due. The former will irritate the buyer for slow shipment. The latter will infuriate the buyer and get you a blistering neg and possibly worse. USPS does NOT send you a bill, as they apparently do on HG's planet. I wonder what planet that is. If you want to continue selling successfully on eBay, you need a scale NOW.