Teacher salaries range from $46,750 per year to $83,724 per year, according to school district data, which the union said is the lowest rate in Alameda County. The school district spends an additional $13,487 per teacher annually to provide full health benefits for educators and their families.
The pay is for 186 days a year, which works out to just more than 37 five-day weeks.
The school district is offering a 5 percent retroactive wage increase from 2017 to 2020. The teachers union wants a 12 percent raise over the same time period. Brown said teachers will strike for as long as it takes to reach a deal. In 1996, a strike by Oakland teachers lasted for five weeks.
A fact-finding report released Friday recommends 3 percent in retroactive raises for both the last school year and the current school year, and new wage negotiations for the 2019-20 school year. Each 1 percent salary increase for teachers would cost the district about $1.9 million per year. The recommendations by Najeeb Khoury, an arbitrator appointed by the state’s Public Employee Relations Board, are nonbinding.
The district plans to keep schools open and hire substitute teachers in the event of a strike, which would affect 36,286 students in 87 district-run schools.