Beyond the Bottom Line

What’s Driving Drivers’ Salaries

By STN Staff

Since 1973, Educational Research Service has performed its National Survey of Salaries & Wages in Public Schools to find the average pay of a number of different positions within school districts. From the information gathered, the company was able to extrapolate the average hourly wages for school bus drivers to give STN’s readers a sense of the average drivers’ salaries in different regions of the country. The survey groups the states into eight regions: New England, Mideast, Southeast, Great Lakes, Plains, Southwest, Rocky Mountains and Far West.

Generally, the differences between the regions were minimal, with only two regions that stood out substantially from the rest. The lowest hourly rate of $13.25 was from the Southwest, while the national high of almost $19 was reported from the Great Lakes region. The other six regions were within a dollar or two of each other.

Unfortunately, the final report does not give reasons for the discrepancies, it only offers the simple numbers that are collected through the company’s online survey. It also does not mention the inclusion of benefits or how wages are decided upon, something else that varies between regions. STN contacted districts and contractors from all eight regions to discover how the issues of driver salaries can affect recruitment and what employers are doing to retain their drivers.

Popular Opinions
One of the most common responses from transportation directors and contractors was how underpaid drivers were. No matter what part of the country we contacted, almost everyone felt that drivers were not paid enough to deal with all the difficulties related to the job. Whether it was poor road conditions or student behavior, the all-encompassing job of a school bus driver was not fully compensated for.

“We’ve been in a year-long struggle, I don’t think we’ve been fully staffed all year,” said Steven Hey, president of School Bus, Inc., a contractor based in Sioux Falls, S.D. “We’ll take a couple of steps forward but it always feels like we take a step backwards.”

Many of the people STN talked to said administrators need to understand the importance and hazards of being a school bus driver.

“I think administrators need to be made aware how dangerous it can be, and drivers should be compensated for it,” said Shelly Johnson, a dispatcher for Lake Pend Oreille School District No. 84 in Ponderay, Idaho.

Others pointed out that it’s not always more pay that keeps an employee happy.

“It’s a bunch of little things that says to them, on an ongoing basis, this is more than just a job,” said Terry Thomas, president and CEO of Community Bus, which runs 150 buses from four different locations within Ohio.

Thomas also offers his 200 drivers and attendants monetary incentives for attendance and focuses on training and improving the work environment.

Beyond the Director’s Control
One district that was contacted in the New England region talked about a unique situation that was state specific. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, if a city has a population over 16,000, the state sets the prevailing wage for drivers when a district contracts out its bus service.

“We have to go the Executive Department of Labor and Workforce Development every time we go out to bid,” said Joy Winnie, transportation supervisor for Northampton Public Schools, located in the western part of the state. “The wage we get from them is a negotiated wage through the union and the present contractor we have. They communicate with the unions when setting the wage.”

Contractors have no room for negotiation with the district when bidding, which has never been a problem for Winnie.

“They know its set by the state,” added Winnie, who uses one contractor to transport the district’s 1,500 students.

Other transportation directors have to leave it to the school board to decide wages. In Lake Pend Oreille School District No. 84, drivers are supposed to receive a raise every year that is not related to their performance, but in the past the system has failed its drivers.

“We had our wages frozen for about four years,” said Johnson. “They just recently started using a new system which is a matrix system where drivers receive a certain percent increase raise every year.”