Success Story: SLPs Achieve a Separate Pay Scale 10% Above Teacher Pay

Michelle Cedillo
Mountainview School District
El Monte, California

What did you do?

As a group, the speech-language pathologists (SLPs) contacted our teacher's union and our school district in the spring to voice our desire for a change in pay scale for SLPs.

• We briefly listed how much we are working beyond our professional day to complete evaluation reports, therapy notes, individualized education programs (IEPs), and so forth—that is, how many days in a month each SLP did extra unpaid work.
• We also reported the number of after-school IEP meetings we participated in. This increase was informed by the following key factors:
  • The school district stopped letting us hold meetings during the day.
  • In 2019, our reports changed from 3–5 pages to 10–13 pages as a result of having to include additional information in order to make the IEPs legally defensible.
  • The teachers' union said that we would have to wait until the fall to add our concern to the bargaining survey.

In the fall, our eight SLPs (we're a small district with two SLP contractors) wrote on a survey that SLPs should have a separate salary schedule (as we are currently paid under the teachers' salary schedule).

As the Executive Board visited schools during the first months of the school year, SLPs followed up with the union asking about our request. At those school site visits, SLPs were told to write to the school district—as the teachers' union said that the district (specifically, the district's Human Resources department) could increase SLP pay without the union intervening.

The SLP department sent another letter to stakeholders—superintendent, school district, and teachers' union—reminding them of our concern that we are not getting paid for the time we put in to complete our mandatory work beyond the hours that teachers are working. The teachers' union was negotiating a raise for all teachers at this time, as well—so, in support of all certificated staff, we were asked to speak at the school board meetings. In our district, you can write a 2-minute statement that either you or a designated staff member can read: You don't have to physically appear at evening school board meetings. Because it was a last-minute request, only a couple of us were able to do this. Our speeches garnered goodwill for SLPs from the union. As much as they need staff to speak up at school board meetings, often it's difficult to find staff willing to do so because they're afraid of backlash.

What were the challenges that you faced?

Our challenges included helping the union and district understand just how much mandatory work—work that is legally required—we were not getting paid for. Despite telling them, we felt ignored at points during this process. The union and district have their own agendas.

With only eight SLPs out of a staff of almost 400, we have such a small voice. The union kept telling the SLPs to get teacher support, which was not realistic. Everyone's busy, and teachers barely get involved to advocate for their own concerns (because they typically let their union handle salary and other teacher concerns), much less go to bat for us.

Also, the union was concerned about backlash from teachers if SLPs got a separate pay scale raise. In our district, the pay scales for counselors and nurses are categorized as "teachers + 10%." The pay scale for psychologists is considerably higher, but they also work 10 additional days.

The SLPs kept reminding the union and the district that we are working more hours than counselors, nurses, and psychologists. As SLPs spoke with some teachers, those teachers expressed surprise and said that they thought we were already on the psychologists' pay scale.

What was the outcome of your effort?

When the union and district negotiated for the second round, they came to a tentative agreement:

• All certificated staff (including SLPs) will get a 5% raise (retro for 2023–2024).
• In August 2024, SLPs will be on a separate pay scale of "teachers + 10%."

Besides fielding SLPs' complaints about not getting paid for the work we were doing, the district has also been facing another challenge: It has not been able to hire a fully staffed speech department for many years—and that shortage was getting worse because surrounding districts were putting SLPs on a higher pay scale.

It took years of futile SLP job interviews before the district realized that they were losing prospective SLPs to higher paying school districts. It's bad business. The district pays a lot of money for SLP contractors—and that's if they can even get them.

The district realized that half of the SLPs will be retiring in the next few years, so they'll have a crisis on their hands if they don't increase our pay and make our salary competitive. One last consideration is the state's budget: This change had to be done now—it's projected that next year, due to a budget deficit, the district will likely not be considering any pay scale changes.

What advice would you give others?

I would tell others to speak up and use their voice for change! Don't be afraid to share your concerns, and don't be afraid of potential backlash. The amount of effort that we expended on this task was reasonable and manageable. Overall, our SLP efforts were minimal, and we really thought that this would take 2 years to happen. We were pleasantly surprised when the change happened so quickly. We SLPs were prepared to ramp up our efforts by speaking to the school board members, ending our day on time, and not bringing home paperwork to complete.

If our district is any example, the lesson here is, the more districts that make separate SLP pay scales, the easier it will be for other SLPs to negotiate for more money. What it comes down to is this: There's still a shortage of available SLPs despite the fact that more and more districts are seeing the need to hire more and more SLPs.

For me, our situation has had a somewhat bittersweet conclusion: I don't feel that the decision was driven by the district fully valuing SLPs for what we do and for our unpaid work but, rather, it simply came down to a staffing need.

I hope that this story sheds some additional light on the situation.

I would like to express my thanks to ASHA and to fellow SLPs for trying to help get fair pay for all SLPs. I have been following ASHA Special Interest Group 16 (School-Based Issues) discussions and ASHA emails for years. I am glad to say: I can delete a lot of saved emails now. Keep up the good work, and I'm happy to have shared our experience.