(DNAINFO)  Amy Zimmer | December 29, 2015 — After nearly three decades on the job, Debra Johnson, an assistant Pre-K teacher at a city-funded early learning center, earns an annual income of $27,000 — or $13.94 an hour — about $3,000 less than assistant teachers with the same degree would earn in a public school in their first year.

Johnson, 50, pays nearly half her take-home in rent for her East New York studio and is currently more than $2,000 in debt on credit card bills, since she often is forced to charge other needs like phone, food and transit.

Both she and the teacher’s aide in her class — who earns $11.79 an hour and is on food stamps to support her children — earn less than the $15 per hour wage guidelines established for the fast food industry that Mayor Bill de Blasio supported, and far less than their Education Department pre-K counterparts.

Source: Pre-K Teachers Are on Food Stamps After 10 Years Without Raise – Bushwick – DNAinfo.com New York