Does Collective Bargaining Influence the Pay Satisfaction of Elementary School Teachers?

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of collective bargaining on teacher pay satisfaction and offer knowledge of the factors contributing to the pay satisfaction of public elementary school teachers. The study focuses on how human capital, occupational characteristics, and job related characteristics impact the pay satisfaction of teachers. The results of our regression analysis suggest that teachers represented by a labor union have higher levels of pay satisfaction than teachers who are not (b=.32, p=.02, p < 0.05). This study’s unique contribution is that we focus not only on the public K-12 school industry, but also we examine the relationship between the presence of collective bargaining and teacher pay satisfaction in school districts across two states.