Livable Wage Victory!

Para-educators Win Huge Livable Wage Victory In Burlington

Burlington, VT – After a three year campaign, Burlington school para-educators of the Burlington Education Association (BEA) won an agreement that will bring its all of our members up to a livable wage by the end of the contract.  This agreement is being celebrated as a groundbreaking victory. 

The campaign for livable wages for Burlington para-educators has not been without struggle.  It took three years of educating school board and community members, as well as organizing faith leaders, elected officials, other union members and hundreds of Burlington residents to show their support. “It is very exciting that we have finally reached an agreement that will guarantee us a livable wage,” says para-educator Ericka Scott.  “However, this was an uphill fight that was met with resistance on many occasions. It is great that the school district realized they had to do this right thing and stop paying poverty wages.”

From the beginning of the campaign for livable wages, it was clear that in addition to being an issue of fighting poverty, it was also about gender wage inequity.  This livable wage victory for para-educators finally helps to close the gender wage gap between municipal workers, who are guaranteed a livable wage by ordinance and are mostly men, and para-educators, who are predominately women and make less than a livable wage.  “The fact that the para-educators are predominately women and were not guaranteed a livable wage was a clear example of gender wage inequity that is still all too pervasive in our society,” says Colin Robinson, Director of the Peace and Justice Center’s, Vermont Livable Wage Campaign. “It is wonderful that this inequity if finally being corrected within the Burlington school district.”

This livable wage success for para-educators helps to ensure that Burlington remains truly livable for more of its residents, however this is not the case for everyone.  The Burlington Livable City Coalition (BLCC), a group of  community organizations and unions that works to ensure Burlington is truly livable for all its residents, came together in part  of this struggle.  “Coalition members came together recognizing that although the City of Burlington was nationally acclaimed for its “livable” status, it was quickly becoming more and more difficult for working families to live within the city,” says James Haslam, Director of the Vermont Workers’ Center – Jobs with Justice.  “We think our city will be a better city when families are not struggling in poverty, but all jobs pay real livable wages and people can live with dignity.  We hope our victory will encourage other people to struggle for livable wages in their workplaces.”

BEA Livable Wage Campaign Archive

Here's a look back at all the work it took to get us where we are today:

Support our colleagues and coworkers in their campaigns for livable wages!

Our Para-Educators, Food Service Staff, and Service and Maintenance Workers are in the midst of contract negotiations.

As educators, we believe in public education and need to acknowledge the importance of every person who works hard to make it function successfully. Para-Educators are critical to the success of our students.  All students deserve to have educators who have pride in our profession, and we should award this basic dignity of a livable wage to the people who support teachers in meeting the academic, emotional, and developmental needs of every child in our city. 

As we explore the socio-economic issues in our city and the impact of poverty on our children and their families, we need to remember that the Burlington School District employs hundreds of workers, many of whom are paid poverty wages. 

Remember our own contract negotiations and our promise to help make Burlington a truly livable city.  Support the Livable Wage!

(From left) Charles Quavelin, Special Ed; Gale Pretty, Para-Educator; Jennifer Quavelin, ESL; Deb Magnus, Para-Educator; Tamara Musgrove, Pare-Educator; Meghan Fitzpatrick, Teacher; Donna Iverson, Para-Educator; Rebecca Smith, Teacher

(From left)  Tamara Musgrove, Para-Educator; Marissa Caldwell, Burlington School Board Commissioner; Rebecca Smith, Teacher

2007 Livable Wage Figures

2007 Livable Wage Figures:   A livable wage is the hourly wage or annual income sufficient to meet a family's basic needs plus all applicable Federal and State taxes. Basic needs include food, housing, child care, transportation, health care, clothing, household and personal expenses, insurance, and 5% savings.

How much is a livable wage?
Because a livable wage is based on family size, these is no one livable wage number. Since 2001, the State of Vermont Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) has estimated the cost of basic needs and the equivalent livable wage, based on methodology first developed in Phase 1 of the VT Job Gap Study and expanded by a 1999 Special Legislative Committee.  As part of Act 59 – passed during the 2005 VT Legislative Session – JFO updates these calculations every odd numbered year on or before January 15^th.  The report  will be updated during the interim year to reflect any significant economic, policy or statutory changes that impact the information within the report.

We marched with teachers, para-educators, community members, families, trades workers, communications workers, and elected representatives in support of livable wages.

The BEA is part of Burlington's Livable City Coalition.  We collaborate with many other workers' unions such as AFSCME.  AFSCME represents our school food service workers and service and maintenance workers.

We culminated the march at UVM, where the Student Labor Action Project was also demonstrating for livable wages with Tent City.