On Not Taking the Job

The Modern Language Association (MLA) issues recommendations for the profession of teaching languages (English and foreign). One of those recommendations is a minimum per-course compensation based on credit hours.

For those who don't want to click on the link, the recommended compensation for 2015-2016 for a three-credit course is $4,900 for a quarter-length class or $7,350 for a semester-length course; MLA recommends $5,320 for a quarter-length course and $8,020 for a semester-length course if compensation were to be more on-par with the recommended annual (and entry-level) salary of $48,180.

Thanks to these recommendations, I've decided to not even waste my time on applying for a job at the community college down the street. While the job seems to be generous at first ($50-60/hour), the truth is that compensation is only for time spent physically inside the classroom. It does not count the large (and often invisible) part of the job - course planning and grading.

Also thanks to the adjunct project, I was better able to pin down how that hourly rate translated to a final salary and frankly it was a mere third of the MLA-recommended salary.

While I sincerely and deeply miss teaching and would love to add a class or two to my life, the compensation isn't worth the loss of my free time. This is part of fighting back against the bottoming-out salaries in the profession; refusing to take work that does not meet minimum, professional association-recommended salaries means that I value my labor and its financial value rather than the "joy" or "satisfaction" of the profession.

I miss teaching and would love to be in a classroom, but I won't do it for less than my professional association says is fair recompense.