By Elijah Jones
Special to In Motion
Money is something that we all need and rely on. And people go above and beyond to get it. Some jobs have large salaries, while others are paid less.
While pay scales are sometimes justified, teachers, policemen and firefighters play essential roles in our society, their paychecks don’t reflect that. Compared to wages of professional athletes, these underpaid and underappreciated servicemen and teachers deserve an increase in their paychecks.
Professional athletes seen on television, in the news media or on magazine covers truly are celebrities, as evidenced by the extreme amounts of money they earn annually. Student journalist Parker Reed had it right when he wrote that compensation should be based on job importance, not entertainment.
One of the latest examples of that is Lebron James, one of the biggest and best-known athletes of all time. In his book “Return of the Kind,” Brian Windhorst estimates James’ net worth in 2016 at over $400 million dollars. James also just signed a 4-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers for $154 million dollars, making him one of the richest athletes of all time.
Another example of an athlete receiving mind-blowing sums of money is soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, who so far has earned $30 million dollars in 2018 alone, aqccording to Forbes magazine. Like Lebron James, he has a life-time contract with Nike.
Possibly two of the greatest examples of overpaid athletes are Floyd Mayweather and Tiger Woods. Floyd —over his entire career — made more than $1 billion. Not that long ago, he fought Connor McGregor and took home $100 million.
Tiger Woods may be remembered as the best golfer, ever. If not that, he is definitely the richest. In 2009, Tiger Woods earned $129 million dollars. Forbes estimates he is worth s around $1.4 billion.
In contrast to overpaid athletes are the underpaid and underappreciated. In an article written by researchers Jason Richwine and Andrew Biggs, they state that public school teachers are “desperately underpaid.” Evidence of that is as easy as looking at nightly news or social media coverage of teachers who are either striking or leaving the profession after decades of being short-changed.
You’d never know by their paychecks that teachers are responsible for molding the next generation, making them vital to our society and encouraging them to fulfill their destinies.
In some states, public-school teacher’s annual earnings are as low as $42,025 and the average annual pay is only $58,064, according to Time magazine. But not only are teacher’s salaries low, they are also declining. It’s causing enough concern that the Washington Post reports its “polls find that 75 percent of Americans believe that teachers are underpaid.”
But they are hardly alone. Another underpaid occupation are police officers. They work hard, long and odd hours in often dangerous situations to keep us safe, only to receive little in return. Police officers can be payed as low as $34,000 and the median pay is $57,000.
Firefighters are yet another vital group with low annual salaries. This job is probably one of the most daring. Having the responsibility of saving lives and facing fires brings a lot of stress. Worrying about a low income does not help. Firefighters can be payed as low as $23,000 and the median pay is $47,000.
Teachers, police officers and firefighters hold essential and important roles in our society. Teachers strongly influence the next generation, police officers keep us safe and firefighters save lives and property. Because these people sacrifice their own lives for others, have extremely stressful work environments and make a huge impact on the well-being of youth, they deserve a salary that reflects those facts.
This is not to say amazing athletes should be paid less because they have worked hard for what they have accomplished. But police officers, firemen, teachers and others also work hard and contribute to our society in more important ways.