Max Marchitello's blog

  • Salary Gaps in Illinois’ Educator Workforce Echo in Retirement

    March 12, 2018
    Max Marchitello
    In a new report, we studied Illinois’ educator salary and tenure data, and found that women typically earn salaries that are $5,500 lower than their male colleagues. This pay gap continues into retirement, leaving women with lower annual benefits even if they worked the same number of years.
    Funding
    Pension Politics
    State Pension Plans
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  • In Illinois, Proposal to Shift Pension Costs to Districts Could Cause More Problems than It Solves

    March 5, 2018
    Max Marchitello
    Illinois Governor Rauner proposes to shift teacher pension costs to school districts. Although this plan does make some sense, there are a few problems with this approach.
    Funding
    Pension Politics
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  • Even With Same Education and in Same Occupation, Women Face Wage Gap

    March 1, 2018
    Max Marchitello

    Earlier this week the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce released a new report looking at the gender wage gap. They found that even with the same education credentials and work in the same occupation, women earn only 92 cents for every dollar a man earns. Even when women choose the most lucrative majors, men still are paid more. In the words of the authors, “women can’t win.”

    In a forthcoming report looking specifically at teachers and administrators in Illinois, we found similar results. After digging into the data, we found that female educators on average earned 92 percent of what their male educators do. Our analysis shows that gender pay gaps exist even when narrowing in on certain roles and regardless of educational attainment.

    Stay tuned for more—or reach out to me at max-dot-marchitello-at-bellwethereducation-dot-org to receive an alert when it comes out.

     

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  • New Study: Three-Fourths of Massachusetts’ Educators are Pension “Losers”

    February 16, 2018
    Max Marchitello
    A new study of the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System (MTRS), Robert Costrell and Dillon Fuchsman from the University of Arkansas finds that 74 percent of educators are pension “losers.”
    Funding
    State Pension Plans
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  • Illinois Considers Perilous Path to Fund Pensions

    January 31, 2018
    Max Marchitello
    Desperate times call for desperate measures, or so the saying goes. Staring down a financial crisis, Illinois is considering a fiscal Hail Mary: a massive fire sale on public debt. While Illinois’s finances certainly are in real trouble, issuing the largest public bond in history may do more harm than good. Here are 5 issues to consider.
    Funding
    Pension Politics
    State Pension Plans
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