I will say that I wish I got paid as much as Drs dentist and Nurses.
Well, here's a reason. How much do you think nurses make in relation to teachers?
This may be part of the eye-roll teachers get. There seems to be an almost cultish attitude that teachers are "underpaid," while other professions are not. I know someone who recently retired as a teacher making 90k a year (yes, she basically had three months off every summer of her working life) who would complain about the things she couldn't afford. I don't personally know any nurses who make that much (not saying they don't exist, but they are going to be specialty nurses for the most part, i.e. nurse anesthesiologist). My cousin is an experienced nurse who recently said she has never surpassed 45k a year.
If you look up the average salaries of nurses and teachers in the US, they are competitive, except teachers work fewer hours per calendar year. In many cases if you calculated by average contact hours, teachers make more. Teachers also tend to have union contracts that include benefits that many other jobs don't have.
You took 1 of 3 jobs I suggested. If you go back you would see the original person said all 3. I still stand by my statement that I wish I got paid like Dr's, Dentist, and Nurses.
What I like about the Nurse payment plan is that if you get another certification your pay goes up. Plus a lot of nurses are hourly. Teachers do not have the option to go hourly. For example I have 6 different teaching certifications and a masters degree and 19 years experience. I make $7000 more then a brand new teacher. You do not find that in nursing. When you pass your test from one level of nursing to another your salary goes up automatically. When you get a masters degree boom another major jump. You would be hard pressed finding a nurse with 15+ years working in a hospital that makes less then 70K. Plus they have the option to work OT.
If I had to do it again I would be a nurse.
Right. I took one of the three jobs you named to ask the question, "How much do you think nurses are paid?" Are you implying that I'm cherry picking information because you named three professions you "wish you were paid like" and I questioned the inclusion of one of them? I didn't name the other two because I agree with you that most doctors and most dentists likely make more than most teachers.
I am confused about this "nurse payment plan" you speak of. In my socialist dream world, we're all on a constantly elevating scheme of payment, but I seriously don't know what you are talking about here. My guess is that it's maybe based on one anecdotal piece of evidence (i.e. you know a well-paid, low-stress nurse). So the follow up questions:
-What do you mean by "another certification"? (Someone else suggested LPN/RN, this would be a completely separate degree and type of nurse. They pay scales you are thinking of strictly apply to RNs and specialized nurses and don't even include most LPNs.) If you're saying that a nurse becomes a nurse practitioner and then makes more money, well yeah. If a teacher becomes the principal they make more money, too. Additionally, you can't conflate RNs with "all nurses" when RNs are less than 5% of the staff in areas like outpatient care, doctors offices, many dialysis centers, etc.
-Yup, a lot of nurses get paid hourly. And often hourly = no benefits. There are many, many nurses in the world who are "relief" or "per diem" and get paid hourly, only when invited to work, and get no benefits. This is similar to substitute teaching, except that my experience is that most subs are not licensed teachers who had their school of employment close down and now have to sub full-time.
-I don't know what you mean by "pay goes up automatically" with more education. I am guessing, again, you know someone who works a)at a hospital, and b)at a hospital that still has a strong union. These are becoming less common. Corporate takeovers of smaller hospital systems are common in many areas, and with that comes loss of jobs for many, and loss of benefits for those who stay. My anecdotal data point is an RN I know who got her BSN after years in the work force, and the response was basically "why would we pay you more to do the same job?" Also of note, only about half of all nurses work in hospitals, so you're purposely selecting the highest paid.
-On the option to work overtime, it's often less of an option than a mandate, especially for--you guessed it!--the non-RN nurses who fill the staff at nursing homes and other places where a single nurse is in charge of a whole hall, unit, or floor by himself. If a co-worker doesn't show up for their shift, you literally can't leave as that would be abandonment. So a last-minute call-in or no call, no show means you get a surprise 16 or 20 hour shift sometimes. (ETA: Imagine if your school had a second night shift, and if the second shift teacher didn't come in, you had to stay and teach that teacher's class until midnight after you'd been there all day. If you didn't you could lose your license and be jailed.)
None of this is to catch you in gotcha moment, but to underscore that if the original question was "why are people down on teachers," a really, really common theme I've noticed with the profession is that teachers always think everyone has it better than them, and bring up their supposed low pay when any evidence to the contrary is brought up. It's not a good look in a world where so many people wish they had the pay, schedule, and job security that many teachers do.
Do I think teachers could be paid more in many areas of the country? Fuck yes! Lots of people should be. It doesn't mean that it's accurate to say "No one makes less than me, I'm a teacher!" (which a person recently loud-announced at my college reunion, while entering a group of people that I can guarantee make less than him, or at least have worse benefits, as the discussion he entered while making that announcement was about buying our own ACA insurance). Another teacher in this thread brought up her 7.5 hour work day. Sounds dreamy to me. Again, my response was to underscore why people already have a bias toward eye-rolling when teachers ask questions like "Do I actually have to use my own sick days if I
get sick?" when other people don't even have sick days.
Teachers aren't unpaid volunteers. You can wish you got paid as much as a doctor, and I can wish I got paid as much as the teachers I know, and hopefully one day that will happen for both of us. American voters don't seem to be on board with income inequality (or really any other kind) being a thing, or the "liberal choice" for our upcoming election wouldn't be to vote for Biden, which to paraphrase Nina Turner, is like eating a half bowl of shit.
That said, if you really wish you could do it over again, can you? Nursing is a 2-year program, usually with pretty low cost of tuition, and if you're sure the pay, benefits, and lifestyle would work out better for you, wouldn't it be worth making the switch now? Or are you close enough to FIRE that it wouldn't make sense?