California Leads the Way in Compensation Trends – What You Need to Know about Trends in Prep Pay

California often leads the way in setting new rights and pay standards for workers. For example, it was the first state to pass the CROWN Act in 2019, which prohibits discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. Additionally, California recently enacted a healthcare-specific minimum wage law—the first of its kind in the nation.

In recent years, California has been actively addressing teacher pay and preparation time, and the rules have touched the operations of AFs in that state. Note that California's progressive approach often (eventually) influences other states to adopt similar policies.

Currently, fewer than half of AFs nationwide have separate prep pay (based on the payroll practices survey, currently in process). The others determine that the prep pay is included in the teachers’ hourly rate, and is therefore not calculated or tallied separately.

Noémie Hérail, Executive Director of the AF in San Francisco, provides this advice for AFs who are not currently paying separately for prep time: “Consider updating your teacher contract to clearly state what prep time is included within the hourly pay rate. That way, you’ll be ready if and when the regulation in your state changes to require a separate, clear delineation between base pay and prep pay.” Note that if your current contract does not have the specification of the amount of prep pay within the hourly rate, then you may end up having to tack on an additional amount, above and beyond the existing hourly rate, should regulations in your state change (as they are changing in California). Such a development could result in a sudden, dramatic increase to the overall, cumulative pay per hour, which may present challenges to balancing the budget. 

 
Submitted by Linda Witt