Dog Trainers Out-Earn Teachers

Do we value obedience over education?

I have a dog and a kid. I love them both dearly. It’s a different kind of love for each, but both have my heart. My kid is infinitely more difficult while the white husky/terrier/hound we rescued sheds like Edward Scissorhands shaving an ice sculpture. Both require a lot of upkeep.

But when Jess, co-founder of AMONG OTHER THINGS, pointed out to me that dog trainers can make more money than teachers, my brain did a summersault like a character out of a Mo Willems’ book…”hubba wha?”

According to zip recruiter, dog trainers in NYC earn about $35/hour while elementary school teachers earn about $27/hour. And while it takes about 6-12 weeks to learn how to train dogs, teachers go to school for at least four years, then earn their certifications and pay to continuously keep them up.

Is this because Max the dog is more valued than Max the kid? Maybe. Or more likely, the patriarchy strikes again.

Teaching has traditionally been a “woman’s job”. And according to Time Magazine, “the roots of its relatively low pay lie in sexism.” Susan Moore Johnson, an expert in teacher policy and professor of education at Harvard says, “The hidden subsidy of public education is the fact that teachers for many years were necessarily working at suppressed wage levels because they really had no options other than teaching.”

Women who wanted to (or had to) work outside the home were given two options: teacher or nurse. In the mid-20th century, teaching was considered a lucrative career. Not because it offered “high pay” but because it was one of the few career paths for women with real earning potential. It was a way to get paid as a woman for caregiving, something most were doing all day for free anyway. And when the bar starts at nothing, something seems pretty good.

After WWII, many women were pushed out of the broader workforce to make room for returning GIs, reinforcing the idea that care work was the proper and expected role for women. Then as they fought to be re-included in more industries, the options expanded, and that’s when teaching became less lucrative.

Over the decades it’s gotten much worse for teachers. According to DOE data, the average teacher has the worst “wage stagnation” of any profession. Today, they earn less than they did back in 1990. No big surprise here that in a field dominated by women, earnings would stagnate.

But now, the manosphere is saying it’s our fault for wanting careers outside the home. They blame feminism. To them, teaching children is maternal instinct, not a skill. Therefore, we don’t need to invest in it or get paid for it. It’s simply “women’s work”. And unlike “man’s work”, it’s supposed to be done with a smile and no expectations of proper compensation for our time or efforts.

And while teaching kids has become less valued, parenting today has become a mental health crisis. Because we know too much now. We know how formidable these years are in a child’s development. We’ve learned a lot since the days of raising kids on autopilot while we pop Valium and pretend we’re not being oppressed. You need to make sure they don’t watch the wrong shows, read the wrong books, hang with the wrong kids, or fry their brains on the ipad. And you need to get them in the right schools with the right teachers because kids absorb everything.

Modern parenting requires the emotional intelligence of a therapist, the energy of a marathon runner, and the patience of a Buddhist monk. It is exhausting. And most of us are doing it with very little social support.

We’ve built society on the assumption that mothers will absorb the cost of teaching children in our bodies, our bank accounts, our careers, and our sanity. And then when we burn out, we’re told it’s our destiny. No wonder childless women experience higher happiness and potentially live longer. You know who else lives longer? Dog owners.

So, should we just trade in Max the kid for Max the dog? Obviously for us mamas, that’s not an option. (Though during intense temper tantrums it may seem like a good idea.)

The key here is to remember we are not the powerless 1950’s housewife who will be given a lobotomy if we act out. Feminism has brought us a long way. It’s not to blame for the remaining disparities, it’s how we became decision-makers, voters, and thought-leaders. We just need to see the system for what it is and refuse to keep making invisible labor invisible.

Here’s some ideas to get started:

1. Stop Apologizing for Asking to Be Paid

If you are a teacher, caregiver, or doing any form of emotional labor: charge accordingly. Advocate. Organize. Push back. Tell your partner you need to be compensated whether that’s financially, emotionally, or with a spa day.

2. Name the Invisible Labor

At home, at school, in your community, point it out. Praise it. Call it labor. Because it is. And it deserves respect.

3. Vote Like a Mother

Push for universal pre-K. Paid leave. Subsidized childcare. Better wages for early educators. These are not luxuries. They’re infrastructure.

4. Model the Shift

Talk to your kids about emotional labor. Show your daughters that love and service don’t mean self-erasure. Show your sons that nurturing is power.

5. Invest in Women

Support mom-owned businesses. Hire women. Promote women. Fund women. And donate to your school as much as you pay the dog-walker.

And join AMONG OTHER THINGS, share this substack with other moms, listen to our podcast, MOMMY HAS QUESTIONS, and join our mailing list. We have some very exciting events coming in the Fall and are always on the lookout for mom organizations to support.

But, most of all, remember your own value as a mama, a teacher, a caregiver, and a feminist. You are raising the future of the human race and that’s more valuable than training dogs.