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Thursday, September 20, 2012


Map: How Much Do Your Local Teachers Earn?

Are they scraping by or making bank? Some data behind the education debate.

—By , , and
| Fri Sep. 14, 2012 3:00 AM PDT
428
The Chicago teacher strike has resurrected the question at the center of much edupontificating: Are American teachers underpaid or overpaid?
For some perspective, we've compiled data on the average wages of elementary-school, middle-school, and high school teachers in more than 300 metropolitan areas. As you'll see, most teachers make more than $45,320, the average yearly wage for all occupations tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet the range of what they earn varies widely: Elementary-school teachers in Jefferson City, Missouri, earn an average of $37,090; their colleagues in Long Island, New York, earn an average of $90,560.
Click on a city on the map below for more information on teachers' average wages within its greater metropolitan area. Note: Earnings do not include benefits.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011 wage estimates




  • Why are Middle School salaries so much higher than Elementary and High School salaries in Napa CA and Chico CA?  Errors in the data?


  • I get it that you as an individual work your butt off. But... why are our kids so uninformed? I go to school campus' and ask very simple questions like who is Joe Biden and no one knows. For all your hard work don't you feel like you are spinning your wheels? These kids today know nothing. Homeschoolers are at least twice as smart.


  • Um, did someone cut class so often they have no idea what school is?  BOTH of my parents are teachers.  I was only able to attend my college of choice for two years because even after the scholarships I received and the loans I took on my own, my parents couldn't afford to help.  I had to transfer to an in-state joke college just to be able to finish a degree.  My father has had two jobs for as long as I can remember.  My mother teaches summer courses.  There were things I never asked for because I knew it would be a burden on them and I didn't want them to ever feel like they had let me down in any way.  I am so proud to say that my parents are teachers.  I know what they sacrificed.  I know how dedicated they were to trying to make the world a better place.  Teachers are not "greedy."  They have the most important job in the world, yet are constantly striving to make ends meet.  Why is the entire country not up in arms about this?


  • Public schools are the biggest fraud in America....followed by higher education and then government from the left.......but that will all change soon even if Obama wins. Actually, you leftists should hope he doesn't win.
    suibne


  • I am a special ed teacher all of my student are EBD/LBD  with severe learning Disabilities. For those of you that don't know what EBD/LBD it means all of my student have behavior and emotional problems. I work 10 min out side of downtown Cincinnati some of the student here are gang affiliated all of the student at my school are on free lunch. In my class not one of my student lives with there mother or father. starting pay at my school is 36,500 a year. After my masters Degree I will be 50,000 in the hole my payments will be 600 a month. I live with my wife and are three kids  in a working class subdivision. Are home when we purchased it was at 124,000. I drive a 1998 jeep wrangler and my wife drives a 2001 jeep Cherokee sport. we would like new cars but we can't afford it. I also have a second job as  a football coach it pays 5000 a year. So to those that believe that teacher make to much money come work at my school for a day.  


  • Error with post, so continuing here.
    I don't want to leave the profession. My first district only paid the state mandated minimum, so my take home pay was 1300/month. It means I drive a 2001 model year car with a cracked windshield. It means that I don't get to see my kid sometimes because his bedtime is before I get home from work. It means having to deal with 38 teenagers crammed into a room that comfortably holds about 22.
    So, yes, let us talk about how much we get paid. Let us talk about all the free time we have. Let us talk about greedy and all powerful teacher unions that get in the way of meaningful reform.


  • Just Someone 09/17/2012 04:53 PM
    Now plot this as cost of housing vs pay.


  • Teachers should be respected not denigrated. The shameful hype in re: overpaid teachers via unions has largely been orchestrated by Jonah Edelman a big advocate for 'education reform', but basically shilling for privatization of public schools.


  • creekpaddler 09/17/2012 08:43 AM
    Perhaps you could also post comparative average salaries of workers in some of these areas as a comparison with average teacher salaries?  There is a very fine line that needs to be walked here between what a teacher makes in salary, benefits, and amount of pension after x number of years and what the average worker makes.  Then you need to add in the amount of time a teacher is actually in the class room teaching (NY is 180 days a year) minus such things as holidays (too numerous to mention) snow days, etc.   I think one of the problems is that a teacher's salary is based on property taxes/school taxes which punish people of lower income and people on fixed incomes more than, let's say, a private business that pays a salary.  And if you add in such things as snow days (it is to laugh, since if, for instance, a hospital worker wants a snow day, fergitaboutit.  You lose pay!), low amounts of vacation, i.e. average paid vacation time of 1 week a year, paid sick leave, well, maybe....and whether or not you have a defined benefit pension from your job or whether or not your...
    show more


  • According to government statistics for the Kingston, NY area, in 2012 the average salary was $28,499 and the median salary was $31, 594 for HHI. (which could mean more than one person working).  The median male, FT, salary was $31,634/year and the median female, FT, salary was $25,364/year.  So far I can't find comparable benefits. So when you compare that to the median salary for teachers just in the Kingston, NY school district, $58,00+, you can see that there is a very wide discrepancy between the two.  Wonder why the GOP is able to capitalize on that?
    also, there are many occupations that require continuing education, i.e., nursing, radiologic technology, IT jobs....this is not limited to teaching.  And of course, most of this is done on your own time.  IF you are lucky, your company will pay for your continuing ed, but a lot of times, this is done on your own at your own expense.  Then you have to add in fees for licenses and belonging to societies, etc.  uniforms,, hey, other occupations have expenses, too.
    Teachers are an occupation like any other profession.  They are not special.  I would venture to say that paying hospital workers a...
    show more


  • And if your little darlings had to go to school on a snow day, then you would be complaining that it's too dangerous for kids to go to school. It's funny how people are complaing about the money to be made from a profession that has one of the most improtant jobs....teaching your little brats every damn day. Most of you can't stand to be around your own kids for 8 hours straight without needing Calgon to take you away.  A lot of these schools are dangerous as well. Why not complain about the Snookie's and Kim Kardashians' who are amking motney for doing nothing. Let's not forget, teachers who are making 70K and above are earning those salaries after years of teaching.  Teachers, firefighters, policemen, soldiers should be earning way more than they are.
    Let's have all the states do away with public schools and see what happens when you have to pay for private education.


  • Oh, goodness, I understated the mean salary (according to this article) for the Kingston, NY school district.  The mean salary for elementary teachers is $74,930 and the mean salary for middle school teachers is $77,120.  This makes the discrepancy even WORSE for the average worker in the Kingston, NY area.

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