News Story

Raise For Detroit School Union Official Exceeds Salary Of Many Teachers

Union dues for district employees $18.45 per month

The highest paid employee for the AFT-Michigan union is no longer its president. It’s Jon Curtiss, who is now collecting a salary of $191,395 after getting a $65,188 raise in 2017.

In 2015-16 the average Detroit teacher salary was $57,793.

Curtiss is listed as the “K-12 Organizer & Policy Analyst” on the AFT-Michigan website.

The salary of union president David Hecker was $162,718 in 2016, with an overall compensation of $181,996. Hecker’s salary dropped to $158,250 in 2017 and his overall compensation was $169,653.

According to released recently LM-2 union reports filed with the federal government, Curtiss made $126,207 in 2016.

AFT-Michigan’s largest union is the AFT-Detroit, which represents about 3,000 public school teachers working for the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Those teachers went five years without a pay raise but did get a 3 percent raise this year. Union dues are listed on the LM-2 form as $18.45 per month.

Curtiss and AFT-Michigan President David Hecker didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.