A compensation model only earns trust if staff can see themselves in it. We built BEN a model where every teacher, school leader, and network staff member can trace exactly how their own pay is calculated, and know it was shaped by their own feedback, not handed down.
BRICK Education Network (BEN), a charter school network, wanted its compensation model to do more than keep pace with the market. Starting in 2019, BEN set out to build a pay structure that was both highly competitive and equitable across every role and identity group in the network, not just a set of updated salary numbers.
BEN wanted to increase teacher and staff pay to the 75th percentile, the top 25% of comparable regional and national roles, rather than simply match the market.
Leadership wanted a model that would dismantle structural pay disparities tied to race and gender and give every staff member a transparent way to understand their own compensation.
BEN needed a model informed by real research and real staff feedback, not one decided from the top down and delivered as a fait accompli.
Built the model on market and EdFuel network-comparison research, cost-of-living and inflation data, and a network-wide staff survey capturing how teachers, school leaders, and network staff actually prioritize base salary, bonuses, and stipends.
Designed a model where role and title requirements, years of experience, longevity, and performance combine into base and bonus compensation, with separate stipends for staff who take on growth opportunities such as teacher leadership roles.
Shared survey findings and a draft model back with staff, ran focus groups with school-based staff before finalizing and launching the revised model, then repeated the process for network staff using updated EdFuel network comparisons.
BRICK's compensation work was never just a numbers exercise. A model that's transparent, equitable, and above-market is how the network keeps the teachers and school leaders who show up every day for the families it serves, and builds the kind of trust that outlasts any single pay cycle.
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