Who earns less in the United States than those in many industrialized countries?

According to a major new international study, teachers in the United States earn less relative to national income than teachers in several industrialized countries, yet they spend much more hours in front of the classroom.
    In the United States, the salary differentials are partly due to relatively low public investment in education compared with other member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group in Paris that made the report. Total government spending on educational institutions in the United States slid to 4. 8％ of GDP in 1998, for the first time falling under the international average.
    "The whole economy has grown faster than the education system, " Andreas Schleicher, one of the authors, explained. "The economy has done very well, but teachers have not fully benefited. " The report is the sixth on education published since 1991 by the organization of 30 nations, founded in 1960, and now covering much of Japan, South Korea, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
    Besides the teacher’s pay gap, the report shows that the other countries have begun to catch up with the United State’s in higher education: college enrollment has grown by 20％ since 1995 with one in four students now earning degrees. It is the first time that the United State’s college graduation rate, now at 33％, has not been the world’s highest. Finland, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Britain have surpassed it.
    The United States also produces fewer Mathematics and Science graduates than most of the other countries. The report says that a college degree produces a greater increase in income here while the lack of a high school diploma imposes a bigger income penalty. "The number of graduates is increasing, but that motivates even more of a demand—there is no end in sight, " Mr. Schleicher said. "The demand for skill, obviously, is growing faster than the supply coming from schools and colleges. "
    The report lists a high school teacher’s salary in the United States with 15 years experience as $36, 219, above the international average of $31, 887, but behind seven other countries and less than 60％ of Switzerland’s $62, 052. Because teachers in the Unites States have a heavy classroom load and their salary per hour of actual teaching is $35, less than the international average of $41. In 1994, such an experienced teacher in the United States earned 1. 2 times the average per capita income whereas the salary was just under the national average in 1999. Only the Czech Republic, Iceland, Hungary and Norway pay their teachers less relative to national incom. In South Korea, teachers earn 2.5 times the national average. Teacher pay accounts for 56％ of what the United States spends on education, below the 67％ average among the group of countries.
    The new data show the United States faces a shortage of two million teachers over the next decade, with questions of professionalism, training and salaries debated by politicians. An international expert at the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Joost Yff, said that training for teachers is comparable among most of the countries in the study, and that they are all coping with similar issues of raising standards and increasing professionalism.
    The report shows though the United States lags behind in scores on standardized tests in math and science, students here get more instruction in those subjects. The average 14-year-old students spent 295 hours in math and science classes in 1999, far more than the 229 international average; only Mexico, Austria and New Zealand have more instruction in those subjects. Middle-schoolers here spend less time than those of other countries studying foreign languages and technology, but far more hours working on vocational skills and physical education. High school students in the United States are more likely to have part-time jobs: 64％ of Americans ages 15 to 19 worked when in school, compared with an international average of 31％.
    The United States spends more money on special services for the disabled and the poor. More than one in four children are in programs based on the income.
    The report indicates a continuing shift in which the United States is losing its status as the most highly educated among the nations. The United States has the highest level of high school graduates aged 55 to 64, but falls to fifth, behind Japan, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Norway and Switzerland, among ages 25 to 34. Among college graduates, it leads in the older generation but is third behind Japan and Canada in the younger cohort. While the portion of Americans with high school diplomas stays at 88％ across age groups, the average age among member countries is rising.