America’s largest union will increase its president’s salary after announcing their budget will decrease by $50 million and expects to loss 300,000 members over the next two years.
The National Education Association will pay Lilly Eskelsen Garcia $293,434 next year, which is an increase from $291,394. In addition to the base salary, Garcia can make at least $103,182 in cash allowances that would cover her benefits and living expenses, according to 74million.org. Garcia made $317,826 in gross salary in 2016.
“It sends an interesting message when you give your president a raise while you are cutting expenses,” Nat Malkus, the deputy director of education policy studies at American Enterprise Institute, told the Daily Caller.
Malkus said that if a corporation laid union workers off, unions would raise red flags about the corporate CEO getting a raise.
Membership loss has made the NEA decrease its budget in areas such as travel (4 percent), publications (27 percent) and office expenses (15 percent).
“Their bread and butter comes through public sector employee salaries, the main way that they have to appeal to increase those salaries is by raising taxes,” Malkus said. “This gets them right into rhetoric about how rich people don’t pay enough taxes, and they are the problem.”