San Antonio Independent School District announced Wednesday that it is increasing its minimum wage to $13 an hour for employees, and $52,350 starting salary for teachers, librarians and registered nurses for the 2017-2018 school year.
Additionally, teachers, librarians and registered nurses with at least a year of experience will receive a 2 percent salary increase, while all other full-time employees earning above minimum wage will receive a 2 percent increase based on their 2016-2017 pay grade, according to Leslie Price, a spokeswoman for SAISD.
The pay increase will be issued retroactively in upcoming paychecks for employees whose yearly work cycles have already began, or if employees have already received paychecks that don't reflect the pay raise.
The majority of employees will be seeing the increase starting with their September paychecks.
With this pay raise, SAISD employees will be seeing the hourly minimum pay increase by almost 30 percent in the past two years — minimum wage for SAISD employees was $10.10 in the 2015-2016 school year, and $12 in the 2016-2017 school year.
“There has been a lot of discussion out there across our country about minimum hourly rates, and as we look at that, and we look at the work that’s being done and the pay that needs to be paid, we just thought that needed to be improved and increased,” Price said.
The pay increase for teachers, librarians and registered nurses represents a 1.6 percent increase from last year’s starting salary, which was $51,500.
Price says where the money comes from depends on how a position is funded: Most are funded through the district’s general operating fund, but some are funded by grants, and others through federal funds.
SAISD’s board unanimously approved the pay raises back in June, but had delayed any action until the legislative special session played out.
