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The Causes and Consequences of U.S. Teacher Strikes

Melissa Arnold Lyon,
Matthew A. Kraft,
Matthew P. Steinberg

The U.S. has witnessed a resurgence of labor activism, with teachers at the forefront. We examine how teacher strikes affect compensation, working conditions, and productivity with an original dataset of 772 teacher strikes generating 48 million student days idle between 2007 and 2023. Using an event study framework, we find that, on average, strikes increase compensation by 8% and lower pupil-teacher ratios by 0.5 students, driven by new state revenues. We find little evidence of sizable impacts on student achievement up to five years post-strike, though strikes lasting 10 or more days decrease math achievement in the short-term.
JEL: I22, J30, J45, J52.

Keywords
teachers, strikes, unions, teacher salaries, working conditions
Education level
K-12 Education
Topics
Policy, Politics, and Governance
Tags
Race, ethnicity, and education,
School reform,
Teacher hiring and retention
Download 09/2024
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/kvjt-mz02
EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:
Lyon, Melissa Arnold, Matthew A. Kraft, and Matthew P. Steinberg. (). The Causes and Consequences of U.S. Teacher Strikes. (EdWorkingPaper: -1032). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/kvjt-mz02

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