The United Federation Teachers approved a new contract for New York City public school teachers on Monday, July 10. The contract takes effect immediately and is in place until Nov. 28, 2027.
UFT members ratified the five-year contract by a 74.6% margin. The UFT issued 115,840 ballots and 95,725 votes were cast, making this the largest number of votes in UFT history.
The new contract covers around 115,000 full-time New York City Department of Education teachers and more than 5,000 part-time employees.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement that the new agreement addresses major changes sought by the union’s negotiation team, comprised of 500 UFT members.
“The contract increases pay, increases educators’ control over their workday, and decreases the non-educational, irrelevant paperwork demands,” Mulgrew said.
The new contract will raise UFT members’ salaries by 17.6% to 20.4% through 2027, including retroactive pay, annual bonuses, and annual raises. The contract provides annual raises specifically of 3% for the next two years, 3.25% in 2025, and 3.5% in 2026.
Mayor Eric Adams had touted the contract’s “substantial wage increases” and called it a “fair deal for taxpayers as well” when the tentative agreement was announced on June 13. The deal, however, needed to be approved via UFT member votes.
Teacher salary raises, bonuses, and annual increases
The contract will also provide all UFT members with an annual bonus, which increases to $1,000 by 2026. The bonus will be paid each year as long as the employee works for the New York City Department of Education. There is also a one-time $3,000 signing bonus to be issued on Sept. 14.
UFT members will also receive $400 as a retention payment in May 2024, $700 in May 2025, $1,000 in May 2026, and $1,035 in May 2027, per the UFT contract.
Starting salaries for teachers will increase to $72,349, including the annual bonus. The most experienced teachers — those with 22 years of service and a master’s degree — will receive a base pay rise to $151,271, including the annual bonus, by the end of the contract.
Teachers will be able to reach a salary of $100,000 in eight years, roughly half the time stated in the previous contract.
The top salary for paraprofessionals is now $56,761, including the annual bonus. Paraprofessionals are supervised teaching assistants who provide instruction primarily to students in special education and early childhood settings. Currently, full-time paraprofessionals are entitled to a salary higher than the minimum $25,927, if they have the appropriate background and experience, according to DOE policy.
The increases were not enough for some UFT members, who argued that the pay hikes failed to keep pace with the cost of living in New York City. One teacher, Keegan O’Brien, also argued recently that teachers are worth more than a 3% raise.
The previous contract ended on Sept. 14, 2022. Comparatively, the previous contract passed by an 87% margin, a higher approval compared to this contract. Among the paraprofessionals who voted for the 2018 contract, 90% had voted yes. The UFT plans to release the vote breakdown by profession this week.
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Programming, workdays, and school holidays
The contract provides a workday with the same length: six hours and 20 minutes. There will, however, be more time allotted to parent engagement as part of a new workday schedule for teachers and paraprofessionals. The new workday schedule will be a pilot program and will be launched this coming school year and will be in place for the following two years after that.
Schools will each have a special education committee selected by UFT chapter leaders to meet with principals in the spring and fall to discuss special education compliance issues and programming for teachers and paraprofessionals.
As part of the UFT contract negotiations, the DOE added four more holidays — most recently, Diwali — and has already released the calendars for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.
The parental leave policy is extended from six weeks to 12 weeks for couples who are both represented by the UFT.
The new contract includes a virtual learning program for middle and high schoolers — the first of its kind for a major school system that would offer classes on nights and weekends starting next school year. By the 2027-28 school year, all high schools will be eligible for the program.
The DOE’s Student Pathways Initiative, announced by the city last September, includes financial literacy education, regular career and college counseling, paid internships, and early college credits.
