The Impact Of Rural Teachers' Salaries On Their Turnover Intention

In the context of the continuous development of urbanization and marketization,attracting and retaining rural teachers has become a challenging policy issue,especially with the dramatic decrease of rural students and the mobility of rural teachers to the city.The 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China(NCCPC)has stressed the importance of "promoting the integration of urban-rural compulsory education and attaching great importance to rural compulsory education".However,with the disappear of "iron rice bowl" and the advent of boundaryless career,the employment relationship between the rural teachers and schools appears to be changeable and externalized.At the same time,some interesting fact has been found in the reality: some rural teachers have not chosen to leave for high salary,the others have not chosen to retain for low salary.But,how to explain this phenomenon which is contradictory to the rational man hypothesis that maximizes economic benefits? Some studies have shows that "organizational commitment" can not only predict the departure or retention of rural teachers,but also reflect the individual's cognitive attitude towards the organization.In this study,625 rural teachers were surveyed by questionnaires and scale to analyze the relationship and mechanism between their salary level and turnover intention.The research findings are as follows:Firstly,Rural teachers' turnover intention is influenced by diversified factors,and presents the group difference(age,school-age,educational background,professional titles,marital status)and spatial heterogeneity(home location,school' location).Secondly,the current salary of rural teachers is 4219.81 yuan/month(4219.81 ± 1248.47)on average,which is 2236.35 yuan/month less than the expected salary(6456.16 yuan/month)And,they are optimistic about current salary levels(13.76%)and future wage growth(31.68%).Thirdly,the salary level has significant positive influence on affective commitment and continuous commitment,but the effect on the normative commitment is not significant.Fourthly,the organizational commitment has only partial intermediary effect between salary level and turnover intention,especially the affective commitment and continuous commitment.Fifth,the rural teachers' turnover intention is also affected by the the macro-social structure and institutional environment.In essence,the salary level as a kind of economic incentive,is not the main factor affecting the turnover intention,but the rural teachers' demographic variables,schools' spatial feature and organizational commitment;and the effect of salary on rural teachers' turnover or retention is more through the organizational commitment.Further,based on the social exchange theory and hierarchy of needs,the salary level is not only the economic reward for rural teachers' labor value in the contract relationship,but also the symbolic significance and signal function of the school organization support and the professional social status(social recognition).Therefore,according to different demand of individuals,organizations,government and society,it is necessary to consider the relationship between rural teachers and schools in the larger urban-rural relationship and interests pattern systematically and comprehensively.