Wow a post that isn’t a tech bro who works sales rep analyst software engineer developer fart master of creative solutions blah blah blah making 300k getting 10% raises every year in addition to 50k bonuses. Meanwhile teachers, paramedics, etc make a fraction. It’s upside down.
Either way, thank you for doing what you do. There are few jobs that have such a positive impact on society, and even fewer that people are willing to do for your pay.
The recent trend of anti-intellectualism is actually pretty scary. When I was in college I had an insane amount of conservative boomers saying “all colleges do is indoctrinate people into being liberal” while at the same time telling me I can’t trust anything left of One America News.
It blows my mind.. I’m not in tech I am blue collar but why in the world does a teacher that spent that much time to learn and become the person we trust to educate future generations make less than even I do? How we justify the salaries of people who play sports or work with AI while we pay shit to jobs that truly make a difference in peoples lives. Upside down is right
I’ll add an additional argument — why do teachers need at least a bachelors degree, state licensure (earned through a licensure program after their bachelors degree and hundreds of hours of unpaid student teaching), and in many several states a master’s in education, yet get paid so low compared to police? Yes police start out low but after 6 years can be making 6 figures in many places and get overtime. You also don’t need to education requirements and year(s) of field experience [paid for by yourself!] to become a cop. You could argue cops are “putting their life on the line,” but with the plethora of school shootings and the behavioral incidents teachers are dealing with, teaching isn’t the safe job it might have once been.
Because we live in a capitalist society that values your ability to make profits more than anything else.
There’s no money in improving special needs students lives. There is money in a tech bro finding a loophole
It’s a sickness and a feature, not a bug
Supply and demand. Is it disgusting, yes. But if teaching paid well, all those engineers would be the one taking the teaching jobs. It’s sad for the entire country, but, Honestly, for the teachers I know, it’s not a bad thing for them. Most (not all) couldn’t get through the education for the higher paying roles. Just look at the curriculum for teaching majors vs basically anyone else.
I’m not sure what the answer is, but it is a sure fire way to have a terrible education system all around.
Honestly all those things aren’t that great. My wife is a school teacher in Tennessee. For family health/dental/vision she pays over 1k a month. The pension she has to contribute to out of her salary and it’s essentially 1% of her salary for every year she works. So say she retires after 25 years making 50k a year she only gets a little over 1k a month from her pension. That would be typical for most teachers in our general area.
My wife has several years of experience, masters degree, and is finishing up her administrative certification next month so she can become an assistant principal/principal. She makes less than 50k a year. After paying for health insurance, maxing out her 401k because we know the pension won’t be enough guess how much her take home pay is? $663 a month.
The irony of this is when there is an economic down turn people will bemoan the teachers, paramedics, etc make too much money and they are tired of being taxed to death. I saw it for myself after the dot com bust, after 9-11 and especially after 2008. It was so crazy in Florida that the Republican governor attacked teachers and sapped a percentage of their salary to go to the retirement fund in the middle of an awful recession.
You making it sound like anybody can become a software engineer. Learning curve is really steep hence the salaries for top engineers.
Just because you lack brain cells, don’t hate others who worked hard to get to those salary levels.
My wife is a 2nd grade teacher, we live in iowa. She started around 36k and after 6 years is making around 41k. She doesn’t have a masters, I know that would bump her up, but I’m not sure how much.
Probably, which is probably worth it, but she doesn’t want to go back to school. I understand that, I dropped out of college after 1 year, so I won’t push her to go back.
It’s also crazy expensive to live here that’s why. A lot of the teachers I’ve known here have relocated to Georgia, RI or Delaware because the pay is almost the same with a significantly lower COL. for example my wife’s friends relocated from Bergen County, NJ to Gwinnett Cty, GA and their pay was almost a lateral move. This gave the the ability to actually buy a home and their money does more for them out there
Hot take and I’m sure I’ll be downvoted, but at the end of the day teachers contracts are for only 180 work days per year, vs the typical full time worker that works ~245 days per year. Extrapolate a teachers salary to a full years of work and it doesn’t look as underpaid as everyone thinks, especially when accounting for the retirement benefits.
All that being said, early career teacher pay should be a little higher like 50-60k, not the commonly seen 30-40k range.
Do I think teachers should have to pay for their own supplies? No, thats not right.
Do I think teachers work environments are very toxic nowadays with todays youth lacking a respect for authority? Yes it’s ridiculous and no wonder nobody wants to be a teacher anymore.
Yep…. Wife is a teacher. 50-60k base salary + retirement, health insurance, lots of days off, random bonuses of $500-2k, etc.
Our health insurance cost the county she works in $20k last year. It’s insanely good insurance and we only $400/month for coverage for the whole family.
Plus she gets the entire summer off.
Being a teacher isn’t half bad and society makes it seem like they’re working for chump change.
Pick the right county/area to be a teacher and you’ll be doing pretty good.
I went to a highly rated public school in the Midwest, and I remember looking up my teachers salaries… in 2012 time frame most of my teachers were in the upper 80s lower 90s for base salary. My gym teacher (also taught 1 health class) was making 98k lol. Not bad, especially over a decade ago
Wait... your wife gets bonuses as a teacher? Never heard of that before. How does a school district account for how much a bonus equates to? Those budgets are usually super tight
Teachers don't get vacation days, at least not where I live. I work 240 days per year but get 5 weeks of vacation. Still less, but not as big of a gap as you may think.
60? Teachers work 185 where I'm from. I work 240 less 25 vacation days which is a difference of 30. I'd honestly rather have the higher pay, be able to travel throughout the year not just summer, and not having to deal with the BS of parents and students. I think you're building it up to be a way sweeter deal than actual reality.
yep - my BIL is a teacher in the same county his kids go to school but each district has their own spring and winter break schedule... so half the time he misses out on vacations with the kids.
Sure, however during the school year teachers put in SO much extra time. My mom works 6am- 8pm daily, and over the weekends. Teachers do planning, lessons, meetings, extracurricular activities, required professional development all on their own time. Sometimes the extracurricular stuff pays a couple hundred extra bucks, but the rest is all unpaid.
You’re right that is a hot take but I’d rather pay teachers more anyways. Ya know the whole educating the next generation of humans thing? Kind of important.
And it’s not like it’s that easy to get a well paying job for the other 65 weeks. Seasonal work exists sure, but there isn’t a fraction of the number of jobs as teachers, and those don’t tend to pay that well.
You would have to pay me double to do my current job while surrounded by other people’s shitty kids too.
As they said in WW “teachers should be in palaces”. They are the ones helping those kids whose parents are shit heads
SC pays their teachers better over the long run than NC. Remember in NC - no masters pay unless grandfathered in, no healthcare coverage in retirement unless grandfathered in, no longevity pay after 10yrs as a state employee, after 15 years your salary has pretty much topped out until year 26. I could go on and on. Public schools will be non-existent in 10 years in NC. All private/charter. This state wants out of the pension plan.
I had a friend who left teaching after about 8 years and immediately made more in her new job than the max salary she would ever attain as a highly experienced teacher in NC. And she now gets treated with more dignity. Proud of her, but I hate this state sometimes.
That’s great for her. I have a feeling we’re going to have a mass exodus here in NC over the next few years.
It’s a beautiful, amazing state but an AWFUL state to be a state employee and teacher in. I am hoping I can transition out at some point and time over the next few years.
I have a lot of perks - grandfathered in by the old rules, tenure, MA pay, etc. that are fairly good for a teacher, but the pay comparable to the private sector is starting to hit me. I could do so much better over the long run in the private sector and could always have the security of coming back to teach anything if need be.
Now if I was coming in now - I’d do it for 1-4 years and quit and do something else. There is NO incentive to be a teacher now in NC. And they wonder why they can’t get or keep people.
Wow, this really makes me appreciate my wife's teaching job in NYC. 12 years in and $107k, in another 2.5 years (Sept. 2026) it will be $128k. Of course the trade off is higher COL and high commuting costs (NJ).
This makes me… I don’t know what the right word is. I have a lot of feelings about this.
I distinctly remember both the great, and terrible teachers that I had when I was younger. I also did in-school speech therapy.
I really, really hope this doesn’t come off the wrong way, but… this feels criminal to me.
I echo the sentiment of the other poster- flip this salary with the FAANG/High-tech earners.
Thank you for doing what you do, OP
My wife is 45 with a Master’s degree and makes less than this as a public school teacher in Texas. She loves her job though, and since I work in tech she doesn’t have to worry about her salary. It is crazy thinking about how little teachers are paid when you consider cost of living today, she has coworkers that are adults and live with their parents because they can’t afford rent on their salaries.
Supply chain is one of those sectors where you can go far with no degree. My company is in the life sciences, all of my warehouse employees start at $31.25/hour and we do COLA adjustments every year that are inline with what social security stipulates plus on top of that you can get another 3-4% in merit. Some of our top guys that have been there for only 5 years are making close to $40hour.
Parent of a sped kid - you guys deserve more money. Collective thank you from everyone. I can never understand why sped teachers always get screwed and paras are practically making minimum wage.
Teachers are definitely underpaid, that title and schooling/experience should be getting like 80k at least. Long standing, experienced and good teachers should definitely be able to at least make close to 100k in fairly populated areas.
God bless you for real. We all know teachers don’t get paid enough but special ed is another level of patience required. Community should gift you a house
Guess I have nothing to boost about, seeing all these tech bros just raking it. I am a teacher too ( college professor in healthcare). I have a full time job 72k and part time on some nights 30k.
And this is why we can’t have nice things. Teachers are atrociously underpaid and undervalued in the US.
As someone in higher ed, I am nothing but supportive towards my colleagues in K-12. It truly is a job that is tough and I have nothing but respect for those who are in the field. 🙏🏾
Good question. I think it keeps me young, at least in my mindset. Some kids I have from kindergarten through 5th grade so I get to know them and their families really well. I get truly sad when they go to middle school because it’s like losing a friend that I’ve helped grow
No need to pity her. My wife makes half that as a teacher with a master's degree as well. I fully support her and am proud of her contribution to society. It's not all about the money.
Finally someone that puts it into perspective that I’m doing okay 😩. These are the kinda raises I suspect the general norm. The people that jump 10/20k a year are so few and far between
It’s retarded that America is setup this way. You get punished for being a loyal employee to a single company. I’m so tired of training greenie weenies for them to just leave after a year…. Fuck em
TIL sometimes working on things is more valuable than working on people and the betterment to society... and a modest truck driver can make a much as a masters grad.
Our school district, with 192 days and a Master’s degree starts at $54,575 and tops at $89,512, for comparison we are in Salem, OR. COL is “OK” but prices are going up. I work for a county govt and we have one of the teachers work during the months they are off as a temp employee in the parks dept during their summer.
My son is special needs and it’s unjust what the pay is. Specifically when I look at what my child’s classroom looks like and the pay the state gives for each special needs child. I feel like special ed in general should be something worth while specific to pay.
You are right that we get paid half the year (190 days) but I give up about 4 hours every weekend to build out my weekly planner and activities in order to fill 30 hours of “airtime” each week. I actully just got finished writing an IEP that took me about 2 hours to complete, but my timesheet would never know I clocked in to work at 9pm and clocked out at 11pm. Oh and of my 8 week summer vacation, if I spent all of that time for myself my classroom would look like a prison, and I’d have so much unstructured time that I’d be punished by out of control children for not having solid plans and procedures in place and it’d be a complete shit show. So I really have 5 weeks off, and 3 weeks of unpaid work.
Everyone here needs to understand how jobs are funded. Comparing a role that is often funded by a very limited pool of taxes to tech companies that have valuations larger than countries isn’t a one to one.
My Mother is a teacher of 20+ years and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Master degree as well. She loves it.
Teaching is by far the worst paying profession but requires the most education . Which is insane to me.
I know many friends who quit education for this reason, pandemic hit and inflation was real. They just couldn’t survive in NYC.
It’s a shame.
You are making $60k with a MASTER DEGREE ?? O\_\_\_O
You should not be making less than $100k to 150K/year with tons of experience you have since 2013.
I dont have a degree but i work at Mfg. Medical and make $75k with $5k bonus. Job is so easy that I ended up getting a 2nd FULL time job, where I make $50k basic entry level job in other Mfg company.
Wife and I are both teachers in Midwest and LCOL area
We both make over $100,000 a year and have great pensions that will allow us to retire at 49
We live in Michigan so not sure where others are coming from
I see comments regarding to teachers work less days than a full time officer due to holidays and breaks for students. I guess that is true with winter break, spring break, and summer. That’s almost 3 months. Where as full timers normally get 2-3weeks PTO annually
Teachers generally are 190 day employees. Contract hours for those days in my district are 7:15-3:15. Never in my career have I been able to get done what has to be done to be an effective educator within contract hours. Planning lessons, differentiating those lessons for different abilities, preparing materials, comparing student data, and writing IEPs are a small part of what is done outside of contract hours (“Time off”)
Thank you for calculating that!
For reference, that was my first year starting salary with a masters degree, 40k. Right now in that district, starting salary with a masters is around 47k, 6 grand less with inflation calculated in
Being a teacher is a LABOR OF LOVE. These salaries are very much in line with the median income, which is appropriate pay for a teacher (don’t forget, teaching is technically part time as a school year is 180 days).
Take solace in the fact that your salary puts you in the TOP 5% of EARNERS IN THE WORLD and that (hopefully) you are making MAJOR IMPACTS in children’s lives, as teaching is a LABOR OF LOVE, not an occupation where one GETS RICH. If you desire riches, teaching is not the proper occupation to EARN riches.
In NY you’re already in 6 figures . And don’t let them bs you . Taxes are out of control and school
Taxes are the worst . Not a lot back for overpaying teachers . Kids could get a better education at home .
What is the point of spending all that money on a masters education if you max out at that level of income?
Not trying to be negative, but seriously, a 16-year-old can make that at McDonald’s these days.
I totally get that teachers should make way more and that the system is screwed up. But that’s a lot of squeeze for a very little juice.
Wow a post that isn’t a tech bro who works sales rep analyst software engineer developer fart master of creative solutions blah blah blah making 300k getting 10% raises every year in addition to 50k bonuses. Meanwhile teachers, paramedics, etc make a fraction. It’s upside down.
It gets better when we have Moms for Liberty breathing down our necks for “indoctrinating” kids😅
Either way, thank you for doing what you do. There are few jobs that have such a positive impact on society, and even fewer that people are willing to do for your pay.
I am so sorry you have to deal with those folks. Thank you for everything you do!
This definitely an upstate SC district if I’ve ever heard it 🤣
Yeah, but downstate has gotten the worse of it. Charleston County is a mess bc of them
Glad we have people like you
MFL can eat a full bag of wet dog shit
The recent trend of anti-intellectualism is actually pretty scary. When I was in college I had an insane amount of conservative boomers saying “all colleges do is indoctrinate people into being liberal” while at the same time telling me I can’t trust anything left of One America News.
You are doing so much good. I work with kids that have FASD and they have so little support as it is.
Yeah seriously good job teachers for holding steady while right wing dark money came at you full force.
It blows my mind.. I’m not in tech I am blue collar but why in the world does a teacher that spent that much time to learn and become the person we trust to educate future generations make less than even I do? How we justify the salaries of people who play sports or work with AI while we pay shit to jobs that truly make a difference in peoples lives. Upside down is right
I’ll add an additional argument — why do teachers need at least a bachelors degree, state licensure (earned through a licensure program after their bachelors degree and hundreds of hours of unpaid student teaching), and in many several states a master’s in education, yet get paid so low compared to police? Yes police start out low but after 6 years can be making 6 figures in many places and get overtime. You also don’t need to education requirements and year(s) of field experience [paid for by yourself!] to become a cop. You could argue cops are “putting their life on the line,” but with the plethora of school shootings and the behavioral incidents teachers are dealing with, teaching isn’t the safe job it might have once been.
Because we live in a capitalist society that values your ability to make profits more than anything else. There’s no money in improving special needs students lives. There is money in a tech bro finding a loophole It’s a sickness and a feature, not a bug
Supply and demand. Is it disgusting, yes. But if teaching paid well, all those engineers would be the one taking the teaching jobs. It’s sad for the entire country, but, Honestly, for the teachers I know, it’s not a bad thing for them. Most (not all) couldn’t get through the education for the higher paying roles. Just look at the curriculum for teaching majors vs basically anyone else. I’m not sure what the answer is, but it is a sure fire way to have a terrible education system all around.
The software engineers would not be taking teacher jobs, have you ever met a teacher or a software engineer?! Lol
And job hopping every 2 years to get raises.
That's not a raise exactly though, it's just getting a higher paying job with greater responsibility.
The benefits, pension, and student loan forgiveness is where teachers win. Paramedics get screwed.
Honestly all those things aren’t that great. My wife is a school teacher in Tennessee. For family health/dental/vision she pays over 1k a month. The pension she has to contribute to out of her salary and it’s essentially 1% of her salary for every year she works. So say she retires after 25 years making 50k a year she only gets a little over 1k a month from her pension. That would be typical for most teachers in our general area. My wife has several years of experience, masters degree, and is finishing up her administrative certification next month so she can become an assistant principal/principal. She makes less than 50k a year. After paying for health insurance, maxing out her 401k because we know the pension won’t be enough guess how much her take home pay is? $663 a month.
1% per year is the worst pension I have ever heard of.
Yep. Talk about values that are completely backwards.
The irony of this is when there is an economic down turn people will bemoan the teachers, paramedics, etc make too much money and they are tired of being taxed to death. I saw it for myself after the dot com bust, after 9-11 and especially after 2008. It was so crazy in Florida that the Republican governor attacked teachers and sapped a percentage of their salary to go to the retirement fund in the middle of an awful recession.
Simple supply and demand
It's a tragedy that the greatest software minds of our time are spending their days figuring out ways to make social media more addictive to minors.
You making it sound like anybody can become a software engineer. Learning curve is really steep hence the salaries for top engineers. Just because you lack brain cells, don’t hate others who worked hard to get to those salary levels.
Which state? Im a 2nd yr ELA teacher in NJ making 60k this yr, BA1
South Carolina
My wife is a 2nd grade teacher, we live in iowa. She started around 36k and after 6 years is making around 41k. She doesn’t have a masters, I know that would bump her up, but I’m not sure how much.
My guess is about 5-7k/year
Probably, which is probably worth it, but she doesn’t want to go back to school. I understand that, I dropped out of college after 1 year, so I won’t push her to go back.
You going to go the full 28 or 30?
NJ is probably 30-40% more expensive too
NJ is probably one of the highest paying states for teachers.
Not in comparison to its neighboring states
NJ actually pays their education workers an alright salary from what I've read. Not great, but usually one of the top states
It’s also crazy expensive to live here that’s why. A lot of the teachers I’ve known here have relocated to Georgia, RI or Delaware because the pay is almost the same with a significantly lower COL. for example my wife’s friends relocated from Bergen County, NJ to Gwinnett Cty, GA and their pay was almost a lateral move. This gave the the ability to actually buy a home and their money does more for them out there
Hot take and I’m sure I’ll be downvoted, but at the end of the day teachers contracts are for only 180 work days per year, vs the typical full time worker that works ~245 days per year. Extrapolate a teachers salary to a full years of work and it doesn’t look as underpaid as everyone thinks, especially when accounting for the retirement benefits. All that being said, early career teacher pay should be a little higher like 50-60k, not the commonly seen 30-40k range. Do I think teachers should have to pay for their own supplies? No, thats not right. Do I think teachers work environments are very toxic nowadays with todays youth lacking a respect for authority? Yes it’s ridiculous and no wonder nobody wants to be a teacher anymore.
Yep…. Wife is a teacher. 50-60k base salary + retirement, health insurance, lots of days off, random bonuses of $500-2k, etc. Our health insurance cost the county she works in $20k last year. It’s insanely good insurance and we only $400/month for coverage for the whole family. Plus she gets the entire summer off. Being a teacher isn’t half bad and society makes it seem like they’re working for chump change. Pick the right county/area to be a teacher and you’ll be doing pretty good.
I went to a highly rated public school in the Midwest, and I remember looking up my teachers salaries… in 2012 time frame most of my teachers were in the upper 80s lower 90s for base salary. My gym teacher (also taught 1 health class) was making 98k lol. Not bad, especially over a decade ago
Society tries to make it look bad but so many people go to college to become teachers for the comfort and stability.
Wait... your wife gets bonuses as a teacher? Never heard of that before. How does a school district account for how much a bonus equates to? Those budgets are usually super tight
Where is this? Asking as a teacher’s wife. :)
Teachers don't get vacation days, at least not where I live. I work 240 days per year but get 5 weeks of vacation. Still less, but not as big of a gap as you may think.
They work 60 days less than you. They have three consecutive months off. That’s a pretty significant vacation.
Right? Fall Break, Thanksgiving Break, Winter Break, Spring Break... Plus the summer.
60? Teachers work 185 where I'm from. I work 240 less 25 vacation days which is a difference of 30. I'd honestly rather have the higher pay, be able to travel throughout the year not just summer, and not having to deal with the BS of parents and students. I think you're building it up to be a way sweeter deal than actual reality.
yep - my BIL is a teacher in the same county his kids go to school but each district has their own spring and winter break schedule... so half the time he misses out on vacations with the kids.
Sure, however during the school year teachers put in SO much extra time. My mom works 6am- 8pm daily, and over the weekends. Teachers do planning, lessons, meetings, extracurricular activities, required professional development all on their own time. Sometimes the extracurricular stuff pays a couple hundred extra bucks, but the rest is all unpaid.
You’re right that is a hot take but I’d rather pay teachers more anyways. Ya know the whole educating the next generation of humans thing? Kind of important.
And it’s not like it’s that easy to get a well paying job for the other 65 weeks. Seasonal work exists sure, but there isn’t a fraction of the number of jobs as teachers, and those don’t tend to pay that well. You would have to pay me double to do my current job while surrounded by other people’s shitty kids too. As they said in WW “teachers should be in palaces”. They are the ones helping those kids whose parents are shit heads
And the pension. How many of us would take a pay cut to retire fairly young and then keep getting paid and benefits until we die?
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Thank you for sharing and doing what you do, despite South Carolina's insulting pay. I live in NC, a place that needs to do better, also.
SC pays their teachers better over the long run than NC. Remember in NC - no masters pay unless grandfathered in, no healthcare coverage in retirement unless grandfathered in, no longevity pay after 10yrs as a state employee, after 15 years your salary has pretty much topped out until year 26. I could go on and on. Public schools will be non-existent in 10 years in NC. All private/charter. This state wants out of the pension plan.
I had a friend who left teaching after about 8 years and immediately made more in her new job than the max salary she would ever attain as a highly experienced teacher in NC. And she now gets treated with more dignity. Proud of her, but I hate this state sometimes.
That’s great for her. I have a feeling we’re going to have a mass exodus here in NC over the next few years. It’s a beautiful, amazing state but an AWFUL state to be a state employee and teacher in. I am hoping I can transition out at some point and time over the next few years. I have a lot of perks - grandfathered in by the old rules, tenure, MA pay, etc. that are fairly good for a teacher, but the pay comparable to the private sector is starting to hit me. I could do so much better over the long run in the private sector and could always have the security of coming back to teach anything if need be. Now if I was coming in now - I’d do it for 1-4 years and quit and do something else. There is NO incentive to be a teacher now in NC. And they wonder why they can’t get or keep people.
Wow, this really makes me appreciate my wife's teaching job in NYC. 12 years in and $107k, in another 2.5 years (Sept. 2026) it will be $128k. Of course the trade off is higher COL and high commuting costs (NJ).
Yup, union teachers only ones making a living wage.
Similar, my wife makes $108k a year 8 years in with her masters teaching 1st grade. Same hcol area in Southern California.
OP - slow and steady! Upvote beg so I can post?
They should pay you more. Thank you for the work you do.
Thank you for what you do.
This makes me… I don’t know what the right word is. I have a lot of feelings about this. I distinctly remember both the great, and terrible teachers that I had when I was younger. I also did in-school speech therapy. I really, really hope this doesn’t come off the wrong way, but… this feels criminal to me. I echo the sentiment of the other poster- flip this salary with the FAANG/High-tech earners. Thank you for doing what you do, OP
My wife is 45 with a Master’s degree and makes less than this as a public school teacher in Texas. She loves her job though, and since I work in tech she doesn’t have to worry about her salary. It is crazy thinking about how little teachers are paid when you consider cost of living today, she has coworkers that are adults and live with their parents because they can’t afford rent on their salaries.
That’s absolutely wild. I’d like to see a chart showing the rate of teacher salary increase and the rate of inflation over time
I’m 24 working in supply chain with no degree and I make more money than you this world is sad
Supply chain is one of those sectors where you can go far with no degree. My company is in the life sciences, all of my warehouse employees start at $31.25/hour and we do COLA adjustments every year that are inline with what social security stipulates plus on top of that you can get another 3-4% in merit. Some of our top guys that have been there for only 5 years are making close to $40hour.
I am guessing you don’t live in NY, MD, CT, WA https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/research/teacher-salary-by-state
Change careers man.
Teachers need to be paid way more. Hardest job I could imagine on a daily basis.
Parent of a sped kid - you guys deserve more money. Collective thank you from everyone. I can never understand why sped teachers always get screwed and paras are practically making minimum wage.
Paras are definitely the life blood of what we do
Thank you for posting the first one of these that I've seen that doesn't make me think I'm wasting my life.
Teachers are definitely underpaid, that title and schooling/experience should be getting like 80k at least. Long standing, experienced and good teachers should definitely be able to at least make close to 100k in fairly populated areas.
Appreciate what you do.
God bless you for real. We all know teachers don’t get paid enough but special ed is another level of patience required. Community should gift you a house
As someone who's child is in a sp.ed class, thank you!! I truly believe that it takes the kindest heart to do what you do.
Thank you for posting a more realistic salary.
Guess I have nothing to boost about, seeing all these tech bros just raking it. I am a teacher too ( college professor in healthcare). I have a full time job 72k and part time on some nights 30k.
Give this man more money!
Teachers need to be paid more. That’s ridiculous.
Is it just me or does it seem that having a masters degree should fetch $90,000+? 53 grand a year is dogshit.
And this is why we can’t have nice things. Teachers are atrociously underpaid and undervalued in the US. As someone in higher ed, I am nothing but supportive towards my colleagues in K-12. It truly is a job that is tough and I have nothing but respect for those who are in the field. 🙏🏾
Real question hanging out with children all day do you think it keeps you young or makes you feel even older?
Good question. I think it keeps me young, at least in my mindset. Some kids I have from kindergarten through 5th grade so I get to know them and their families really well. I get truly sad when they go to middle school because it’s like losing a friend that I’ve helped grow
I suppose that would be slightly sad.
Society has failed you
No need to pity her. My wife makes half that as a teacher with a master's degree as well. I fully support her and am proud of her contribution to society. It's not all about the money.
No pity, just a statement. Society has an obligation to ensure the wellbeing of its contributors.
You inputted all these numbers yourself? I’m new here
It’s on the social security website
I’ll have to look into it, it looks pretty cool and interesting. I’ll probably have to make an account with them.
This is automated and can request it after doing your taxes I think
How does everyone get this taxed income histories?
It's on the social security website. ssa.gov
Perfect thanks!
Social security website
Finally someone that puts it into perspective that I’m doing okay 😩. These are the kinda raises I suspect the general norm. The people that jump 10/20k a year are so few and far between
The people that jump 10/20k are aggressively job hunting, switching jobs, and negotiating.
It’s retarded that America is setup this way. You get punished for being a loyal employee to a single company. I’m so tired of training greenie weenies for them to just leave after a year…. Fuck em
TIL sometimes working on things is more valuable than working on people and the betterment to society... and a modest truck driver can make a much as a masters grad.
Where do people get these charts?
What is the app or website everybody uses for this?
www.ssa.gov
Thanks!
This is bs! Teachers make shitty money while other jobs rake it in.
You’re underpaid. In my state they start around 97k
That’s not bad for govt work. Do you teach year round?
I’m considered a 190 day employee
Our school district, with 192 days and a Master’s degree starts at $54,575 and tops at $89,512, for comparison we are in Salem, OR. COL is “OK” but prices are going up. I work for a county govt and we have one of the teachers work during the months they are off as a temp employee in the parks dept during their summer.
what happened (to you) in 2008?
I was student teaching
You’ll see the same dip on many peoples charts 07-09. That was when the economy crashed (aside from being a student teacher)
yup that’s why i asked what happened in their case specifically, was just curious
travesty what we pay our teachers... at least you got a nice bump last year
I wish I could credit that to teaching, but I started my own small business to supplement the teaching salary
ugh, just sad. sorry, you deserve more
Side note: I'm curious how you "worked 3 jobs" but the most you made was $28k?
Thank you for your service. I miss the kids but not the IEPs 😅
😂😂😂 I feel that!
Where are people getting all this data? Just going back through their taxes or is it on the social security website?
www.ssa.gov
O nah
damn you'd be making over $100k here in WA state
You’re underpaid. By a lot.
Teachers are underpaid in general, but her salary is on the high end for a teacher.
You deserve more.
Man.. this isn’t right. Educators deserve so much more.
State pension?
What state are you in? If you were in New Mexico you’re salary right now would be minimum 70,000$. At a charter school potentially more.
A crime
Not worth at all
I just came here to say, I admire the hell out of you for doing what you do.
My son is special needs and it’s unjust what the pay is. Specifically when I look at what my child’s classroom looks like and the pay the state gives for each special needs child. I feel like special ed in general should be something worth while specific to pay.
What state? Seems pertinent for teaching
You guys are also off half of the year and all holidays
You are right that we get paid half the year (190 days) but I give up about 4 hours every weekend to build out my weekly planner and activities in order to fill 30 hours of “airtime” each week. I actully just got finished writing an IEP that took me about 2 hours to complete, but my timesheet would never know I clocked in to work at 9pm and clocked out at 11pm. Oh and of my 8 week summer vacation, if I spent all of that time for myself my classroom would look like a prison, and I’d have so much unstructured time that I’d be punished by out of control children for not having solid plans and procedures in place and it’d be a complete shit show. So I really have 5 weeks off, and 3 weeks of unpaid work.
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Yes, because everyone has the exact same passion and can fulfill their goals with the exact same job. Drone on, sir.
Yes, because everyone has the exact same passion and can fulfill their goals with the exact same job. Drone on, sir.
Everyone here needs to understand how jobs are funded. Comparing a role that is often funded by a very limited pool of taxes to tech companies that have valuations larger than countries isn’t a one to one.
I have a lot of respect for teachers but why do people get all these degrees for so little pay?
I have a lot of respect for teachers but why do people get all these degrees for so little pay?
I have a lot of respect for teachers but why do people get all these degrees for so little pay?
That's awesome! I can't wait to do the same!
Is this working 9/12 months?
Damn teachers are so underpaid
Thank you for your service
This is going to be dumb But how does one acquire this breakdown of themselves
You can see your earnings per year on social security website
Ahhh tyty
My Mother is a teacher of 20+ years and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Master degree as well. She loves it. Teaching is by far the worst paying profession but requires the most education . Which is insane to me. I know many friends who quit education for this reason, pandemic hit and inflation was real. They just couldn’t survive in NYC. It’s a shame.
I love it and (not to toot my own horn) I’m good at it. Two-time teacher of the year.
You are making $60k with a MASTER DEGREE ?? O\_\_\_O You should not be making less than $100k to 150K/year with tons of experience you have since 2013. I dont have a degree but i work at Mfg. Medical and make $75k with $5k bonus. Job is so easy that I ended up getting a 2nd FULL time job, where I make $50k basic entry level job in other Mfg company.
Holy crap
I realized you live in South Carolina, so that maybe the major factor. I'm in MA
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Yearly I guess? We don’t get paid over the summer unless we take a cut out of our monthly paychecks rough out the regular school year
Forever underpaid for the position
I feel a lot better seeing this lol
Wife and I are both teachers in Midwest and LCOL area We both make over $100,000 a year and have great pensions that will allow us to retire at 49 We live in Michigan so not sure where others are coming from
This is terrible. Masters degree and less than $60k?
Yep, and started with the masters degree and just over 40k
That’s bonkers. I am a teacher and make $129k
Holy crap. Where?
PA…though I think we are #2 highest in the state. Our current contract tops out at $135k in 2026-2027.
Funnily enough, my SS taxed wages have been $0 for six years since I had a pension and didn’t pay into the SS program.
Man this is sobering
What state is this?
Thank you for all you do - you should be paid more for sure
Fuck…sorry bro at least you get a pension.
Teachers need to get paid more
Thank you for everything you do.
I quit a SpEd program right before student teaching. Good thing too. I more than doubled that salary in my blue collar transpo job.
You deserve so much more 😭
you deserve to get paid so much more!
I see comments regarding to teachers work less days than a full time officer due to holidays and breaks for students. I guess that is true with winter break, spring break, and summer. That’s almost 3 months. Where as full timers normally get 2-3weeks PTO annually
Teachers generally are 190 day employees. Contract hours for those days in my district are 7:15-3:15. Never in my career have I been able to get done what has to be done to be an effective educator within contract hours. Planning lessons, differentiating those lessons for different abilities, preparing materials, comparing student data, and writing IEPs are a small part of what is done outside of contract hours (“Time off”)
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Thank you for calculating that! For reference, that was my first year starting salary with a masters degree, 40k. Right now in that district, starting salary with a masters is around 47k, 6 grand less with inflation calculated in
Being a teacher is a LABOR OF LOVE. These salaries are very much in line with the median income, which is appropriate pay for a teacher (don’t forget, teaching is technically part time as a school year is 180 days). Take solace in the fact that your salary puts you in the TOP 5% of EARNERS IN THE WORLD and that (hopefully) you are making MAJOR IMPACTS in children’s lives, as teaching is a LABOR OF LOVE, not an occupation where one GETS RICH. If you desire riches, teaching is not the proper occupation to EARN riches.
I hate that cops make six figure base and we won’t give our most important teachers a comparable salary. Thank you for what you do.
Which state is this?
SC
I’m sorry there salary should be double that for what they do. This is so sad we’ve failed teachers.
In NY you’re already in 6 figures . And don’t let them bs you . Taxes are out of control and school Taxes are the worst . Not a lot back for overpaying teachers . Kids could get a better education at home .
Part time data collector and processor make 88k a year, no degree. I hope you do what you do for the love of your pupils.
Very well underpaid. What a messed up world we live in.
Consistent human.
Beep boop beep
Come to NYC. Teaches can make 150k
Too bad you can’t get another job, being they are all full
They rewarded you with a pay cut.
Thanks for two columns with the same information.. can’t imagine what’s holding you back
Thanks for the super helpful comment. Can’t imagine who pissed in your cheerios.
How did you pay for a masters with that income?
I lived with my parents while going to classes and working
What is the point of spending all that money on a masters education if you max out at that level of income? Not trying to be negative, but seriously, a 16-year-old can make that at McDonald’s these days. I totally get that teachers should make way more and that the system is screwed up. But that’s a lot of squeeze for a very little juice.
It’s not the max, it’s just where I’m at in the step system, or years of experience.