Despite employee attendance and an increase in crowded classrooms, it has been more than four years since the 94,000 members of New York City's United Federation of Teachers (UFT) have received any pay raises. Now, union President Michael Mulgrew is demanding that the city pay teachers more than $3.2 billion in back pay.

No raises have been implemented since 2009 - Mulgrew says that a teacher who was earning $54,000 in 2009 would be making an extra $7,000 each year if a new labor agreement had been signed. Mulgrew isn't alone in his calculations, either. Across the city, union presidents are crunching the numbers on the 152 expired labor contracts that have prevented their workers from seeing a wage increase. Unions across New York City have tallied that their employees are now owed between $7.2 billion and $7.8 billion in back pay, and they're preparing to hand over this bill to the next mayor on January 1, 2014.

Many criticize that paying these bills would financially harm the city, and that it is an unrealistic demand. Maria Doulis, director of New York City Studies for the Citizens Budget Commission, expressed concern over the proposal.

"You would need to cut all over the place, including in places that people hold sacred, like education," Doulis said to the New York Daily News.

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