Chicago teachers vote on deal to bring average salary to over $114,000
per year
[April 11, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Chicago Teachers Union members have begun voting
on a labor contract that would raise their average salary to more than
$114,000 a year.
Voting was scheduled Thursday and Friday on a four-year collective
bargaining agreement with Chicago Public Schools.
Mayor Brandon Johnson expressed support for the deal earlier this month.
Mailee Smith, senior director of labor policy and staff attorney at the
Illinois Policy Institute, said the contract will burden taxpayers.
“It’s estimated to cost around $1.5 billion, and Johnson has said he
doesn’t have a plan yet to pay for it,” Smith told The Center Square.
CPS teachers currently have an average salary of more than $93,000 per
year. If they approve the tentative agreement, the number would rise to
$114,429 by the end of the contract.
Smith said teachers can expect to pay more in dues to CTU.
“When government unions like Chicago Teachers Union are advocating for
higher salaries for teachers and for other school employees, what they
are really advocating for is a higher dues amount coming from that
employee, because every time they score a win in the raise category,
that means they are also going to be taking more money out of that
person’s paycheck,” Smith said.
CTU raised member dues by 13% for fiscal year 2024. Teachers currently
pay the union an average of more than $1,400 per year.
According to CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, the agreement gives teachers their
largest annual raises in over 13 years. The deal also calls for CPS to
add up to 900 new positions.
“We anticipate that the agreement will increase staffing from current
levels by several hundred positions over 4 years, with most of these
additional staff serving our highest-need populations like our English
Learners and students with disabilities,” Martinez wrote in a letter to
CPS families. “The final total of additional staff will be dependent on
District and school-level enrollment and need.”
In the letter, Martinez thanked the CPS bargaining team and detailed how
much time and government labor went into the negotiations.
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|
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union in Springfield at the Illinois
State Capitol
Catrina Petersen | The Center Square
“These dedicated professionals have spent close to a year
negotiating in good faith, responding to more than 700 initial
proposals and countless counter proposals to get us to this point,”
Martinez said.
The contract, if approved, could affect the district’s federal
funding. Smith said the contract allows CPS to hide students’
preferred gender identity from parents.
“They must respect the student’s privacy, especially if parents or
family members don’t know how they identify. There’s definitely
language in this contract that keeps secrets from parents,” Smith
said. “If that is something that a Trump administration or the
current Department of Education, however that works out, places
strings on with their federal funding, that could be a problem for
Chicago.”
Teachers have been working without a contract since June 30, 2024,
when the previous collective bargaining agreement expired.
According to the Chicago Teachers Union Local 1 website, every CTU
member in the district gets to vote on whether to accept the
tentative agreement with CPS.
“This [tentative agreement] only becomes our contract if a majority
vote of our membership approves it and when the Board of Education
votes to adopt it,” CTU posted.
In order to vote, members must have documentation to show they are a
member of the union.
“A state issued ID along with either a CTU membership card or a
payment stub from this year showing dues deduction will suffice,” a
statement on the CTU Local 1 website read.
Results of the vote are expected to be announced on Monday, April
14.
If CTU members ratify the agreement, it would go to the Chicago
Board of Education for approval. Then, according to Martinez, the
board would have to pass an amendment to fund the first year of the
contract. |
