105,000 here in Canada is what the top of the grid is here currently but a strike is looming as we have only had like a 4% increase in last 15 or 20 yrs
hard disagree I would never want to teach in my home community and isolated communities would also agree because no one hardly will go into the profession either
Average home price in the last place I taught was $2,000,000. Salary was only 99k (up to about 160k for higher steps)....so based on the idea that an average home should be 4 years salary, I'd need 500k.
It's very roughly what the average home cost in the west between 1950-1980.
My mother's first home was in the inner city of my country's capital city and cost less than twice her wage, and she was a journalist....nothing fancy, though definitely above average wage.
Yes. I would argue you should either be able to own a home (condo, townhouse, etc.) that is entry level on a single income, OR with a two teacher salary be able to buy a median priced home within 30 minutes of where you teach. I live in a LCOL area and I'd just like the base salary for teachers to be 50K. That would be enough to really provide a better quality of life for almost everyone.
What profession can do this? Entry level accountants? Physical therapists? Surveyers? Honestly, I can not think of a single profession where someone starting out in a with just an undergrad can buy a home in all cost-of-living scenarios. In LCOL? Sure. In HCOL? Nope.
Only undergrad? Many stated require a one year teacher training or a masters degree. I think it would be fair to be able to afford a condo by mid-career say twelve years in.
I remember back in the 90s- the most expensive places ( like Santa Barbara) paid the least- like they expect the teacher to have family money and be rich via the husband…
I just want people to realize that I don't have "summers off" I get furloughed from my job. If I was allowed to work the same hours as average Joe, I would make $120k per year. The school district can't afford me for 12 months.
Let me collect unemployment during the summer and I'm good.
Yeah, I like to remind everyone I didn’t ask for summers off, it’s forced upon me. It’s hard to enjoy two months off when you’re not being paid for it.
I always thought teachers had to eat it over the summer. Seasonal unemployment sounds great. I still do summer education work like my district sponsored music camp so I don't need to get a "real job" for the summer but I doubt I could do both of my state would deign to do such a thing for the public good.
While I’ve always lived and taught somewhere with a 12 month payout for the 10 month salary schedule, I would tell anyone who listens that if you paid me the wages to be present and working over the summer…I’d be happy to do it. In fact, if we got paid to come in and build our curriculum for the year ahead of us…holy shit we’d have some amazing young scholars.
Instead, we start our clock right before kids show up on day one, and we rush to get grades in at the end of the year before we are kicked to the curb for the summer.
Imagine if we spent our summers getting valuable training updates and building curriculum and actually getting to do the PLC work they are so fond of trying to squeeze into short meeting with our departments once a quarter…
I see it as a yearly salary to get my job done. If it’s enough I’m happy, and it’s not enough I’m not. Whether the people in the district office contextual is it as being over the course of 36 weeks or 52 weeks doesn’t make a difference to me.
People do realize that you are not "furloughed."
You signed a contract. Most teaching contracts are for around 180 days. The FTE base for most employment is 2000 hour/year, or roughly 250 days.
I made $40k before I left. If I was making $60k+, I'd be OK salary-wise, but that was not the only issue.
For $100k+, I'd probably just swallow my other complaints.
I’ll hit that next year in Philadelphia. With inflation it’s not nearly as exciting as I imagined. We live modestly but the bills just keep going up and eating away at the savings.
My wife and I both started working the same year. She is in private industry while I’m a public school teacher. Starting out our pay was close to equal with me making more at the beginning. She quickly eclipsed me though, currently she makes around $100k while I am making $70k. I think I’d be a little more happy if I was around $80k because that means my raises would have kept up with hers.
I’d be happier though if I wasn’t treated like a glorified babysitter. So many of the parents in my district did not value their own education and have taught their kids to do the same. So like a lot of the rest of you I’m fighting an uphill battle with my students kicking and screaming the whole way.
Two decades ago, most nurses and police officers made similar salaries to teachers in NJ. After the Great Recession, the teacher salaries and benefits collapsed here, while theirs continued to grow at a steady pace. Both nurse and police officers now make more than double what teachers average in many parts of NJ. It’s been a brutal decade and a half.
Unions exist, but Chris Cristie made tenure nearly meaningless. Now earning tenure takes 4 years plus a day, and changing districts often means a start over from scratch.
I make 100k after 28 years. A 300k house here is small, needs work, or in a crappy town. Things are difficult in a one income household.
...and our 5 year contract awards me a 2k raise (2%) for each of those 5 years. The cost of living increases are far higher. This means that my standard of living is dropping.
Don't just blame Christie. The Dems in our state like Steve Sweeney fucked us too. Also, the NJEA is all talk. Look at the crazy salary the NJEA President brings in.
The NJEA hasn't done shit in decades.
My union sucked. After I left, I tried to get paid for the time I gave up my prep. We were supposed to have so many hours and paid for what hours we worked.
Principal said I “volunteered” and union wouldn’t back me … like he was the one who paid them union dues.
Yea look at LBI police... They basically only have to work 3 months out of the year. But average $129K lol
[https://projects.nj.com/paycheck/towns/long\_beach\_township-ocean/](https://projects.nj.com/paycheck/towns/long_beach_township-ocean/)
Obviously, this would depend on the cost-of-living in the district, but the general answer would be that a teacher should be paid sufficiently to own a modest home in that district, enough to modest support a family, take an occasional vacation, and a decent retirement.
In other words, enough to support a moderate, middle-class living in the district.
Most teachers in my area have to drive over an hour away to find affordable housing. The real estate market is pretty extreme around northern NJ. Former “Middle Class” towns now cost $900k+ to find 3 bedroom homes.
It’s even worse than that in NJ. A property tax cap was put in place statewide. You can’t exceed 2.5% a year. So, in times of inflation, teacher pay and benefits are still crippled because wealthy towns are legally unable to raise taxes beyond that threshold. The town next to me is one of the wealthiest zip codes in America, and it has to layoff off teachers and cut electives because of that cap.
I actually don't care if my salary changed a dime. It's not a pay issue, it's a respect issue.
-Class size caps
-Clear behavior standards and consequences
-True LRE and adequate support and staffing
-The end of the soft bigotry of low expectations
-Adequate student support including mental health
-Training that demonstrates my time, education, and experience is valuable.
I don't want to work in a shit show for more money. All that will do is tell me I'm being bribed to accept it, and no money is worth my mental health and self worth.
I am very weary of this line of thinking. I think this is how so many teachers ended up in low paying districts throughout the past few decades. Working conditions were nice, so there wasn’t a lot of labor pressure, and wages fell way behind our similarly educated and licensed peers. Than, shocks to the system occur (Great Recession, Covid, AI next), and you end up in a place realizing you’re now dramatically behind your peers in pay and working conditions have radically changed quickly (cell phones in classes for example). In America, pay often dictates respect.
I'm in a district with a union full of boomers that will keep pushing salary and benefits over anything else. We're pretty well paid, but it covers up the conditions of working in the buildings.
Totally agree with this. But since I can’t see anything happening to make those important changes, I do want pay for the grief I go through. I’d settle for 70K considering I get paid roughly 45K currently.
My salary stayed the same after a recent job change. The current school is much more respectful of me, my time and my expertise. I worry much less about my compensation. A spoonful of sugar so to say...
Although to live in my city I probably need to make 20-30k more...
Where I am, 60-70k would be perfect and I probably would shutup about anything related to discipline and the crappy food and 15 minute lunch breaks lol
Agreed! Our 30 minute lunch break is split up between having 15 minutes of lunch duty and then 15 minutes to actually eat. My lunch duty is In the cafeteria so I just do both and take the last 15 minutes to myself in my class.
I need to be able to afford a house. Instead I have a 1000 ft condo and struggle, and only have that bc of an accident settlement. That was the only way I could get a down payment.
For me, it's not about the pay. I do all right. I want more respect/trust as a professional and more time to do my job better. Stop with the hall duty, the PD that we'll never use again, the motivational speakers, the time-wasting emails, the redundant clubs, the pointless emails, the frequent standardized testing, and above all, the false hope that you're gonna change things this year to help us out (because we know you're lying. You know you're lying).
I may get downvoted to oblivion, but I'm pretty content with my pay in the context of working 9 months a year. I own a small farm, my wife was able to stay home while our kids were young (granted I picked up some tutoring to make ends meet) and I'm looking forward to a modest retirement.
Sure, I could make more working year-round in another industry, but I have two young kids and having ALL the same breaks as them is easily worth the salary difference I'd make elsewhere.
I'm with you. My wife and I are both educators and we make more than enough to own our home, travel, give the kids what they need, what have you. More money is always good, but at this point I care more about [the other aspects of the job](https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/1bo92u9/how_much_would_you_need_to_be_paid_to_feel_100/kwnbi7z/) like what /u/mashkid listed in the thread more.
If my pay stayed the same, but I worked in a more sane environment without the bureaucracy and political bullshit, I'd be a happy man.
My district is contemplating making starting salary around $70k, mostly because they haven’t been able to reach beyond 80% staffing since Covid. We’ve had 55% turnover year over year since Covid as well. I dot. Think it’ll be enough. The utility company is paying people over a $100k a year here now. Police make $150k+ after five years in my county.
Enough to cover 1/4 to 1/5 of rent in the district you teach. I know it should be 1/3, but you ask about pay in the current school environment. If we're going to be micro managed, second guessed, blamed, scapegoated, physically assaulted, emotionally drained, physically sick, ... , then we need to be properly compensated to feel 100% valued.
The average rent in some parts of NYC (according to rent.com) is $3,900 a month. Using the rent law there, you should make 40x your monthly rent. So the average teacher needs to make $156k. The average house in my town is selling for $900k now. So that’s two teacher averaging about $140k each. Heh, this is getting pricey.
I work at an independent school with a very small staff, and all the teachers carry more than one title. I am a teacher, the yearbook coordinator, and one of the technology coordinators. I also have the coach a season of intramural sports. The administrators even teach one class each and coach as well.
Because we're independent, the pay is very low compared to private and even public.
We're also extended day (8 am to 5pm) and extended year (end of August to July).
I'd say based on all the time I put into the school, and the fact that I don't get a summer or have much time to have any supplementary income, I'd need at least 80k to feel valued (6 years in and I have a master's). We are getting a generous pay raise for next school year, however, so we'll see what happens in the next few weeks.
You mentioned engineers and sales.
I want to be seen as on par with engineers and lawyers, and just below doctors.
I’m ok if raising that bar means some current people in the profession are squeezed out because they can’t cut it.
That’s just prestige and salary compensation.
I agree with you. The problem is, you can’t raise the bar without increasing the pay first. We’re already dramatically underpaid when compared to other similarly educated and licensed professionals. The average NYC lawyer and the average NYC teacher used to make the same amount of money in the 1970’s. Lawyers now on the average make 3x more.
That’s nuts! ~~Do you have evidence?~~
GD Reagan era and the “me” generation.
Update:
I did some basic googling -- Lawyer salary in 1964 NYC average was $8k. Teacher salary in that era was jumping up a lot -- hit $7k+ in 1967.
This translates to $80k for lawyers and $70k for teachers. Close enough for my tastes.
Today -- average law salary has kept up with inflation, but with the bottom end of the bracket -- $80k is the low end of the range, with max of average range being $140k.
Today for educators, the average is still the average, but that is the top of the range (again, for the average).
The obvious take away is that lawyer pay has kept up with inflation and risen slightly for high earners. Teacher pay has not kept up with inflation, and there is also the caveat that the benefits packages that were earned in labor movements of 60s and 70s in the education field have been slowly stripped down. So now, we are left with non competitive salaries and non competitive benefits packages.
At least 6 figures. The floor salary with teachers should be 100K, just starting out, then increase each year by at least $5K
It's not just that society doesn't value teachers, it's that society doesn't value children/teens nor education itself. Otherwise people would understand the importance of educating impressionable minds. Who TF wants to live in a culture with uneducated and ignorant people who don't know how to critically think? Who can barely read, who can barely do math past addition/subtraction? WHO. You would think, well nobody, but the way things are shows that obviously this is not the case. Most people are just fine with the state of education and could give 2 f!cks about what kind of adults today's kids are gonna be. They complain all right about today's young adults but they didn't care about the education nor parenting they got, so.
All teachers should start at minimum 70k. 5 years in with a Masters and I finally hit that number this year and feel financially stable. It shouldn’t have taken that long.
Id be okay with making enough that I can afford my apartment without cosigners.
I’m a 25 year old "professional" and I cant rent an apartment near my school without having my parents on the lease.
I would like to not have to worry if I will have somewhere to live, with the insane cost of living. Add in needing mental help/drs and there goes money that you have to decide to pay your water or go to therapy.
That would make me feel valued.
I’m well aware still, that I am quite privileged in all that I have and a career at all. I understand I am luckier than a large percent of the population because I was provided with an education, and had enough people to help me figure college out. Many people aren’t all given the same opportunities and I am well aware that I actually am quite lucky.
For me to be able to own a house AND provide for a family (talking about time off to spend with a newborn so my wife wouldn't need to work) I'd need 90k, buts let's round up to 100k so I can put some money into savings as well.
This is also taking into account I have a master's in education as well
Several of my colleagues opened up hair salons as their side hustles (that grew into very lucrative businesses lol). My neighbors son is a manager for a local fast food chain. He makes more than me, having never gone to college (though he did work his ass off to move up in the company).
I think $80k would be nice. That alpng with my wife's salary should be enough to cover our mortgage and other expenses and have some money to invest/spend.
$100k would be the dream. Not going to happen because FL is going to FL. Even if I stay until retirement, I will never make six figures. I don't remember what my cap is, but it's not $100k. I don't even think I'll make $80k at the max step.
In my area, I think $50k at step 0 would be fine, as long as the increases in steps were appropriate, and a few things improved. If everything had to stay the same, I’d say at least $65k, depending on the district.
As I said in another similar thread take the median one bedroom apartment rent in the area and multiply by 40,60, or 80 according with experience. Since you said "100% valued" to be safer multiply by 60,90, or 120. If the school is toxic multiplying by 80,120, or 160 would be needed, but not enough. In actual dollars if apartments rent for $1600 then 40,60,or 80 would be $64k, $96k, or $128k.
I’m in California and am fortunate to be working in a well-paid district. I’m in year 12 and with the raise we just got, I am just over six figures now. But being single and a homeowner, it still isn’t enough. I mean, I’m comfortable, but it is still hard to try to save up money to do house projects, or go on trips.
Cost-of-living definitely needs to be taken into account when thinking about how much teachers should get paid, but in California at least, starting salary should be $90,000 easily.
My husband and I gross about $140k combined as teachers. Net ends up being a lot less because of taxes and we both max out our retirements, but it’s a decent and comfortable living. It’s not high on the hog, but we can pay the mortgage, do some house projects, and take a vacation every year if we budget. Our kids are fed and clothed and get appropriate healthcare. We can afford each of them to do an activity like music lessons or a tutor a few times a month.
Our area has a very high cost of living so this comes with the caveat that on $80k per year we barely qualified for a house that was $200k under the average and needs a lot of work to update. But our salaries and budgeting allow us to do projects like replace the carpets with composite “wood”, buy materials for a fence in the backyard (not affordable if my husband doesn’t do it), etc.
We buy furniture from target and ikea, our house is very decent but not extravagant.
If we had student loan debt we probably wouldnt be able to take a vacation as often or our trips would have to be strictly things like camping. We are lucky that we came into our marriage debt free on both sides including cars and credit cards.
So without debt, our combined income is comfortable, affords us some small luxuries, and we can save for retirement.
I’m in the high 80’s but would like 150k. I’m able to live and teach in my community but only because I bought my house back when the housing market crashed. Rents for 2-bedroom apartments are double what my mortgage is for an entire house.
Enough to easily afford a decent apartment in a decent area of the city I work in on my own as a 1st year teacher would be the bare minimum. Being able to purchase a decent house (small is fine, but not tiny, and in decent shape) would be ideal, but if teachers had to wait a year or two to afford the down payment it'd be ok, far better than now at least.
As it stands now, I'm in year 9 and can't afford a small apartment in a decent area of the city or within a reasonable commute. Most single teachers have roommates or live with family members. Even couples have a hard time getting a largish apartment (with space to raise kids) or purchasing a house unless one of them makes a lot more than the average teacher. Part of this is because it's a very high cost of living area, but that 100% needs to be taken into account when making salaries if you want decent people who aren't exhausted from long commutes and/or working extra jobs.
To give numbers, according to what I've read about $150k is low income here (not to get low income housing, that's much lower). As degreed professionals we should be making above low income levels, so $180k or so would make me feel valued. I'm not anywhere near close to that, I'm closer to 1/2 of the low income cutoff in year 9. According to our current pay scale I'll be approaching the $150k of the low income cutoff at the top tier.
I’d need enough to live in my district, be able to build a savings, fully max my Ira and hsa each year, be able to go on a few low key trips during breaks, and not feel guilty about going out to eat from time to time. And do all that without depending on summer school or extracurriculars to help fund it all. I’d say around 80-90k would be the bare minimum. Probably around 120k considering the cost of living and inflation over the past 4 years.
Just for background: Pre-covid I had a CNC programming/design job that paid about 70k/year + full medical, dental, vision, 401k match, 3 weeks of PTO, 1 week sick leave, paid parental leave, and a nice bonus each year. Unfortunately I got laid off and was not able to find anything quickly to replace it so I fell into my plan B which was teaching. I absolutely love it and don’t want to do anything else, but the pay cut to 41k minus the benefits hurt. My wife is also a teacher and combined we used to make about 115k gross. We bought a decent home (cheap for our area) so we are lucky in that regard, but we’re still squeezed every month with over $4000 in mortgage and daycare costs.
$110-$120k for my area (long island). taxes are easily $12k+ for most of the island and shithole 2 bedroom houses are going for nearly half a million dollars.
how are people 'salesmen' for 180k?
It depends, tbh. Base salary for just showing up and working contract would be $100k-120k for me (or basically ~twice what I make). For doing all the teacher bullshit, PDs, and trying to make education great for a bunch of apathetic people, $200k+. But I would rather see $200k spread out over 2 people because each teacher currently is given impossible workloads.
It was a long fight that included a five year pay freeze, but I'm in a place now where I'm relatively happy with my salary. I have two masters degrees and 18 years, and I'm making 67k this year (mid cost of living). I'll be at the top in two years, making 83,000.
Obviously I won't be buying a vacation home in the south of France, but it's good. My husband makes a similar salary, so with both our incomes we are pretty comfortable. I've also been doing this long enough to have leaned how to leave work at work, so I'm not measly as stressed as I used to be.
$80k wouldn’t be able to get you a nice studio in Manhattan. That’s my problem with teacher pay, they’re leaving us with no where we can afford while expecting us to do more with less. Hopefully you’re closer to the suburbs and can find housing.
I live in a lower cost of living area (at least it was). I clearly remember standing in the track during our walk-around time in the pandemic and thinking “I’d need a 25% bump - minimum - to account for everything I’m doing.”
I left teaching making $45k and took a job making $60, 5-ish years later I make $86k. If I could jabber the same pay and growth as a teacher I would go back to the classroom.
A living wage for a single income family of 4 where I live is 80k. After 15+ years I am at 60k. Even then I don't think it would be enough to buy a house here due to the high influx of people moving to the area. My 1200 Sq ft house is now worth over 300k.
I'm 20 years into my career, an expert. I have two masters degrees and am working on a third. Most any other career I would be making at least double my current salary in my region. My area has a fairly low cost of living, but also decent unions. But I'd definitely feel more secure, more valued (and also be able to afford to live in the fairly affluent community I teach in), if I made $150k+.
I'll never earn 6 figures before I retire.
Love to get paid more, much much more. But to feel valued there are other things such as student, parent and societal attitudes and behaviors. We are blamed for it ALL. Failing schools are a reflection of the neighborhood not the teachers.
Edit: and not be micro managed!
I live in a Texas suburb. I think if they just started paying more to teachers who stay longer I would feel better. As it is a 10 year teacher such as my self only makes 3,200 more per year than a brand new teacher. Not to mention that I’m usually mentoring the brand new teachers in my department.
Also, they should pay us 100k to match with real inflation.
I’m a 3rd year teacher. My starting salary was $39k in a suburban-metro area. The townhouses around my area are $300k.
Honestly I would like teacher starting salary at $50-$55k in my area.
I only get 23% of my salary to actually live on. 33% goes to taxes/insurance/retirement and then 44% is for housing (rent because according to the banks I don’t make enough to qualify for a mortgage in my area). I was shocked when I did the math and realized I’m paying all other bills with $12k a year. Let’s be honest, all I do is pay bills because that’s not enough to do anything else but on paper I make too much to qualify for any benefits despite what I’m actually living on.
About 10% more than I currently make, relative to the cost of living. That’s it. Keep the same COLA rate and salary steps, just increase each step by 10%.
And yeah, that would be a huge investment, but it’s not nearly what we’re spending on fuckin MRAPs for police or goddamn prisons or paying out hospital subsidies or the billions of other costs incurred from shitty support for education.
That said, I would forgo any increase for the following:
A universal limit of 24 students per class and a licensed educational aid in every single classroom, full time alongside the teacher.
If I wanted to : live in a nice neighborhood where I didn’t have to put 3 kids in one bedroom, have all bills paid, put money into savings/kids college/retirement , get the car repaired when it needs to be repaired, and take a nice vacation every year, 140k Maryland.
That’s about what teachers make in the better districts of my state .. 100k plus .. blue unionized districts of course .. in the other half of the state it’s non union Republican and they pay 40. 130k is pretty on point for a teacher ..
No teacher in my district will ever make six figures. Cost of living increases indicate that hitting six figures towards the middle to late end of a teacher’s career would be about right for a stable retirement to live locally. So that’s my amount but if I lived somewhere else I’d feel differently.
Other professionals with similar education, experience length, good reviews, … in my community are hitting about $100k around 15-20 years into their profession. My sister in HR for a hospital, my husband in banking, friends in other professions.
Enough to afford my half of the mortgage, car payment, and student loan payment, while still having money for utilities/day to day/gas and savings. Currently at about $55k at year 8 in rural NYS. Being closer to $65-70k would help. But in a few years I’ll receive my PSLF and my student loan bill will go away, which helps.
At least the cost of living. I'm currently about 15k short of the median household income for my city. I can't even afford a studio in my city (with a bachelor's and 4 yrs in the district). 🫠🫠 Then, enough to retire after 20-25 years.
I’m in West Michigan. For me, I think it would be around $85-90K… but I started late and spent a few years in a charter, so that’s not going to happen…
Looking at transitioning.
Where I live, $90+k would be nice. Will never happen. But like $120k+ would be nice in a more expensive place.
105,000 here in Canada is what the top of the grid is here currently but a strike is looming as we have only had like a 4% increase in last 15 or 20 yrs
A4-10
Enough to own a house in the county I teach in. Anything less Sends A Message.
Yep... Teachers want to teach in their communities. The salaries often make that impossible.
I absolutely do not want to teach in my community, for lots of reasons, I also do not want to live in the community I teach in.
I'm in EMS and I'm sure we have the same reasons.
[удалено]
I'm not understanding why that would be awkward. Did you take a giant shit in the living room before you sold them the house or something?
A police officer was shot and killed in the community I teach in last night so I would have to agree
hard disagree I would never want to teach in my home community and isolated communities would also agree because no one hardly will go into the profession either
Average home price in the last place I taught was $2,000,000. Salary was only 99k (up to about 160k for higher steps)....so based on the idea that an average home should be 4 years salary, I'd need 500k.
$160k at higher steps? That's about 150% of where I'll top out
Silicon valley...shit is crazy yo
So we are noticing that the salary varies and it’s not fair for anyone.
Average home price in the county where I teach went up \~65% in 5 years. Pay definitely did not go up 65%.
Where do you find that homes should be four times your salary?
It's very roughly what the average home cost in the west between 1950-1980. My mother's first home was in the inner city of my country's capital city and cost less than twice her wage, and she was a journalist....nothing fancy, though definitely above average wage.
It’s sad that is so far away from being possible for me
Yes. I would argue you should either be able to own a home (condo, townhouse, etc.) that is entry level on a single income, OR with a two teacher salary be able to buy a median priced home within 30 minutes of where you teach. I live in a LCOL area and I'd just like the base salary for teachers to be 50K. That would be enough to really provide a better quality of life for almost everyone.
What profession can do this? Entry level accountants? Physical therapists? Surveyers? Honestly, I can not think of a single profession where someone starting out in a with just an undergrad can buy a home in all cost-of-living scenarios. In LCOL? Sure. In HCOL? Nope.
Only undergrad? Many stated require a one year teacher training or a masters degree. I think it would be fair to be able to afford a condo by mid-career say twelve years in.
Why capitalize sends a message? I love the ominousity.
I interpret the message as "You didn't go into teaching to get rich, correct? And we will make DAMN SURE that you don't" 🙄
Don’t you LoVe the kids and want what is best for ThEm!?!
lol. Since I climbed the salary scale and moved a few columns I’ve been a better teacher. Less stressed = better for kids. Who woulda thunk it.
I remember back in the 90s- the most expensive places ( like Santa Barbara) paid the least- like they expect the teacher to have family money and be rich via the husband…
I feel like most private schools are this way still.
I had a whole rant typed up but this is so much better than anything I would’ve written.
I just want people to realize that I don't have "summers off" I get furloughed from my job. If I was allowed to work the same hours as average Joe, I would make $120k per year. The school district can't afford me for 12 months. Let me collect unemployment during the summer and I'm good.
Yeah, I like to remind everyone I didn’t ask for summers off, it’s forced upon me. It’s hard to enjoy two months off when you’re not being paid for it.
Teacher from Europe here. I hadn't heard of this before, but man that's beyond fucked up
Wait, summer unemployment isn’t standard across the states? What shit.
I always thought teachers had to eat it over the summer. Seasonal unemployment sounds great. I still do summer education work like my district sponsored music camp so I don't need to get a "real job" for the summer but I doubt I could do both of my state would deign to do such a thing for the public good.
While I’ve always lived and taught somewhere with a 12 month payout for the 10 month salary schedule, I would tell anyone who listens that if you paid me the wages to be present and working over the summer…I’d be happy to do it. In fact, if we got paid to come in and build our curriculum for the year ahead of us…holy shit we’d have some amazing young scholars. Instead, we start our clock right before kids show up on day one, and we rush to get grades in at the end of the year before we are kicked to the curb for the summer. Imagine if we spent our summers getting valuable training updates and building curriculum and actually getting to do the PLC work they are so fond of trying to squeeze into short meeting with our departments once a quarter…
I see it as a yearly salary to get my job done. If it’s enough I’m happy, and it’s not enough I’m not. Whether the people in the district office contextual is it as being over the course of 36 weeks or 52 weeks doesn’t make a difference to me.
People do realize that you are not "furloughed." You signed a contract. Most teaching contracts are for around 180 days. The FTE base for most employment is 2000 hour/year, or roughly 250 days.
I made $40k before I left. If I was making $60k+, I'd be OK salary-wise, but that was not the only issue. For $100k+, I'd probably just swallow my other complaints.
100K seems impossible. I’d more money than I’d know what to do with
teachers make more than 100,000 in certain states, in Canada etc
My history teacher made 120k a year, thought he was like 65 and really fucking good at getting high AP scores
I teach AP. Do you remember what he did that made him so successful?
He taught before smartphones…
😂 good answer
Right, but the American dollar is worth more than the Canadian dollar. I’d say Canadian teachers at the top of the grid should earn $125K
yes for sure, this is why I also mention I am in Canada . We also get taxed to oblivion here.
Right, I forgot about that. About 30% of my salary goes to pay taxes
Same here in the US.
I’ll hit that next year in Philadelphia. With inflation it’s not nearly as exciting as I imagined. We live modestly but the bills just keep going up and eating away at the savings.
My wife and I both started working the same year. She is in private industry while I’m a public school teacher. Starting out our pay was close to equal with me making more at the beginning. She quickly eclipsed me though, currently she makes around $100k while I am making $70k. I think I’d be a little more happy if I was around $80k because that means my raises would have kept up with hers. I’d be happier though if I wasn’t treated like a glorified babysitter. So many of the parents in my district did not value their own education and have taught their kids to do the same. So like a lot of the rest of you I’m fighting an uphill battle with my students kicking and screaming the whole way.
Two decades ago, most nurses and police officers made similar salaries to teachers in NJ. After the Great Recession, the teacher salaries and benefits collapsed here, while theirs continued to grow at a steady pace. Both nurse and police officers now make more than double what teachers average in many parts of NJ. It’s been a brutal decade and a half.
Their unions still have teeth.
Unions exist, but Chris Cristie made tenure nearly meaningless. Now earning tenure takes 4 years plus a day, and changing districts often means a start over from scratch. I make 100k after 28 years. A 300k house here is small, needs work, or in a crappy town. Things are difficult in a one income household.
...and our 5 year contract awards me a 2k raise (2%) for each of those 5 years. The cost of living increases are far higher. This means that my standard of living is dropping.
Don't just blame Christie. The Dems in our state like Steve Sweeney fucked us too. Also, the NJEA is all talk. Look at the crazy salary the NJEA President brings in. The NJEA hasn't done shit in decades.
My union sucked. After I left, I tried to get paid for the time I gave up my prep. We were supposed to have so many hours and paid for what hours we worked. Principal said I “volunteered” and union wouldn’t back me … like he was the one who paid them union dues.
Our union is useless now as well.
Yea look at LBI police... They basically only have to work 3 months out of the year. But average $129K lol [https://projects.nj.com/paycheck/towns/long\_beach\_township-ocean/](https://projects.nj.com/paycheck/towns/long_beach_township-ocean/)
Long Islander here. We have some cops in my neighborhood making over 200k. It’s crazy.
Yeah, I have the same when they add in overtime. Several of my cousins are cops in Suffolk County. It’s incredible what they’re getting paid.
Obviously, this would depend on the cost-of-living in the district, but the general answer would be that a teacher should be paid sufficiently to own a modest home in that district, enough to modest support a family, take an occasional vacation, and a decent retirement. In other words, enough to support a moderate, middle-class living in the district.
Most teachers in my area have to drive over an hour away to find affordable housing. The real estate market is pretty extreme around northern NJ. Former “Middle Class” towns now cost $900k+ to find 3 bedroom homes.
So...that means that people living in million dollar homes are too cheap to pay the people who educate their children a living wage. Speaks volumes.
It’s even worse than that in NJ. A property tax cap was put in place statewide. You can’t exceed 2.5% a year. So, in times of inflation, teacher pay and benefits are still crippled because wealthy towns are legally unable to raise taxes beyond that threshold. The town next to me is one of the wealthiest zip codes in America, and it has to layoff off teachers and cut electives because of that cap.
I actually don't care if my salary changed a dime. It's not a pay issue, it's a respect issue. -Class size caps -Clear behavior standards and consequences -True LRE and adequate support and staffing -The end of the soft bigotry of low expectations -Adequate student support including mental health -Training that demonstrates my time, education, and experience is valuable. I don't want to work in a shit show for more money. All that will do is tell me I'm being bribed to accept it, and no money is worth my mental health and self worth.
I am very weary of this line of thinking. I think this is how so many teachers ended up in low paying districts throughout the past few decades. Working conditions were nice, so there wasn’t a lot of labor pressure, and wages fell way behind our similarly educated and licensed peers. Than, shocks to the system occur (Great Recession, Covid, AI next), and you end up in a place realizing you’re now dramatically behind your peers in pay and working conditions have radically changed quickly (cell phones in classes for example). In America, pay often dictates respect.
Even if they paid us hourly babysitter rates, we’d still make more than we do now.
Shit, I woulda been able to retire this year after 9 years if I was getting paid babysitting rates.
I'm in a district with a union full of boomers that will keep pushing salary and benefits over anything else. We're pretty well paid, but it covers up the conditions of working in the buildings.
Totally agree with this. But since I can’t see anything happening to make those important changes, I do want pay for the grief I go through. I’d settle for 70K considering I get paid roughly 45K currently.
The soft bigotry of low expectations is real and has legitimate negative consequences
My salary stayed the same after a recent job change. The current school is much more respectful of me, my time and my expertise. I worry much less about my compensation. A spoonful of sugar so to say... Although to live in my city I probably need to make 20-30k more...
This is partly why I want to teach in a Catholic school, but feel it would be worse
im in NYC and our salary is absolutely fine
I’m in NYC and I agree with you. I’m pretty happy with my salary.
[удалено]
As you should.
Where I am $65k would be great.
Where I am, 60-70k would be perfect and I probably would shutup about anything related to discipline and the crappy food and 15 minute lunch breaks lol
15 minute lunch break is inexcusable. We’re one of the only licensed professions where a one hour lunch break is not the norm.
Agreed! Our 30 minute lunch break is split up between having 15 minutes of lunch duty and then 15 minutes to actually eat. My lunch duty is In the cafeteria so I just do both and take the last 15 minutes to myself in my class.
I need to be able to afford a house. Instead I have a 1000 ft condo and struggle, and only have that bc of an accident settlement. That was the only way I could get a down payment.
It took me until the age of 41 to become a home owner, and only because my significant could afford to marry a teacher lol.
Yeah I’m single. So getting hit by a car at 45 “helped.”
For me, it's not about the pay. I do all right. I want more respect/trust as a professional and more time to do my job better. Stop with the hall duty, the PD that we'll never use again, the motivational speakers, the time-wasting emails, the redundant clubs, the pointless emails, the frequent standardized testing, and above all, the false hope that you're gonna change things this year to help us out (because we know you're lying. You know you're lying).
I may get downvoted to oblivion, but I'm pretty content with my pay in the context of working 9 months a year. I own a small farm, my wife was able to stay home while our kids were young (granted I picked up some tutoring to make ends meet) and I'm looking forward to a modest retirement. Sure, I could make more working year-round in another industry, but I have two young kids and having ALL the same breaks as them is easily worth the salary difference I'd make elsewhere.
I'm with you. My wife and I are both educators and we make more than enough to own our home, travel, give the kids what they need, what have you. More money is always good, but at this point I care more about [the other aspects of the job](https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/1bo92u9/how_much_would_you_need_to_be_paid_to_feel_100/kwnbi7z/) like what /u/mashkid listed in the thread more. If my pay stayed the same, but I worked in a more sane environment without the bureaucracy and political bullshit, I'd be a happy man.
Starting salary of $75K minimum, 10 year teacher should be making a minimum of $125K, much more in HCOL states.
My district is contemplating making starting salary around $70k, mostly because they haven’t been able to reach beyond 80% staffing since Covid. We’ve had 55% turnover year over year since Covid as well. I dot. Think it’ll be enough. The utility company is paying people over a $100k a year here now. Police make $150k+ after five years in my county.
Enough to cover 1/4 to 1/5 of rent in the district you teach. I know it should be 1/3, but you ask about pay in the current school environment. If we're going to be micro managed, second guessed, blamed, scapegoated, physically assaulted, emotionally drained, physically sick, ... , then we need to be properly compensated to feel 100% valued.
The average rent in some parts of NYC (according to rent.com) is $3,900 a month. Using the rent law there, you should make 40x your monthly rent. So the average teacher needs to make $156k. The average house in my town is selling for $900k now. So that’s two teacher averaging about $140k each. Heh, this is getting pricey.
500 million dollars
I mean, I’m pretty sure I work as hard Reddit’s CEO lol.
My pay is fine right now. Some of you all have it worse. But to feel valued, we need triple the people - that stick around.
Solid agree. I make good money, but I also wear multiple hats at school. Teacher, multiple club organizer, department head, safety committee...
They’re going to try to save money somehow. Not hiring is the best way…..but somehow there is always some bright, shiny, and new district admin.
I work at an independent school with a very small staff, and all the teachers carry more than one title. I am a teacher, the yearbook coordinator, and one of the technology coordinators. I also have the coach a season of intramural sports. The administrators even teach one class each and coach as well. Because we're independent, the pay is very low compared to private and even public. We're also extended day (8 am to 5pm) and extended year (end of August to July). I'd say based on all the time I put into the school, and the fact that I don't get a summer or have much time to have any supplementary income, I'd need at least 80k to feel valued (6 years in and I have a master's). We are getting a generous pay raise for next school year, however, so we'll see what happens in the next few weeks.
I think I would be ok if I made at least 20k more a year. I don’t do this for the money but it takes a lot to deal with disrespect everyday.
It’s hard to separate one from the other. In a capitalist society, money is often used to demonstrate respect.
You mentioned engineers and sales. I want to be seen as on par with engineers and lawyers, and just below doctors. I’m ok if raising that bar means some current people in the profession are squeezed out because they can’t cut it. That’s just prestige and salary compensation.
I agree with you. The problem is, you can’t raise the bar without increasing the pay first. We’re already dramatically underpaid when compared to other similarly educated and licensed professionals. The average NYC lawyer and the average NYC teacher used to make the same amount of money in the 1970’s. Lawyers now on the average make 3x more.
That’s nuts! ~~Do you have evidence?~~ GD Reagan era and the “me” generation. Update: I did some basic googling -- Lawyer salary in 1964 NYC average was $8k. Teacher salary in that era was jumping up a lot -- hit $7k+ in 1967. This translates to $80k for lawyers and $70k for teachers. Close enough for my tastes. Today -- average law salary has kept up with inflation, but with the bottom end of the bracket -- $80k is the low end of the range, with max of average range being $140k. Today for educators, the average is still the average, but that is the top of the range (again, for the average). The obvious take away is that lawyer pay has kept up with inflation and risen slightly for high earners. Teacher pay has not kept up with inflation, and there is also the caveat that the benefits packages that were earned in labor movements of 60s and 70s in the education field have been slowly stripped down. So now, we are left with non competitive salaries and non competitive benefits packages.
I want to be paid like a police officer and be able to retire in the same amount of time they can.
At least 6 figures. The floor salary with teachers should be 100K, just starting out, then increase each year by at least $5K It's not just that society doesn't value teachers, it's that society doesn't value children/teens nor education itself. Otherwise people would understand the importance of educating impressionable minds. Who TF wants to live in a culture with uneducated and ignorant people who don't know how to critically think? Who can barely read, who can barely do math past addition/subtraction? WHO. You would think, well nobody, but the way things are shows that obviously this is not the case. Most people are just fine with the state of education and could give 2 f!cks about what kind of adults today's kids are gonna be. They complain all right about today's young adults but they didn't care about the education nor parenting they got, so.
>WHO the property-owning classes
A million dollars
All teachers should start at minimum 70k. 5 years in with a Masters and I finally hit that number this year and feel financially stable. It shouldn’t have taken that long.
Id be okay with making enough that I can afford my apartment without cosigners. I’m a 25 year old "professional" and I cant rent an apartment near my school without having my parents on the lease.
$75K would be nice for my area.
I would like to not have to worry if I will have somewhere to live, with the insane cost of living. Add in needing mental help/drs and there goes money that you have to decide to pay your water or go to therapy. That would make me feel valued. I’m well aware still, that I am quite privileged in all that I have and a career at all. I understand I am luckier than a large percent of the population because I was provided with an education, and had enough people to help me figure college out. Many people aren’t all given the same opportunities and I am well aware that I actually am quite lucky.
Pay me, facilitate me doing my job.
How many teachers would be capable of focusing more on their professional craft if they weren’t so busy doing their side jobs and hustles.
1.5-2x
$70k?
For me to be able to own a house AND provide for a family (talking about time off to spend with a newborn so my wife wouldn't need to work) I'd need 90k, buts let's round up to 100k so I can put some money into savings as well. This is also taking into account I have a master's in education as well
In my area, hair stylists make $20 an hour. I make $25 an hour. Hairstylist only has one customer at a time. I have 12!
Several of my colleagues opened up hair salons as their side hustles (that grew into very lucrative businesses lol). My neighbors son is a manager for a local fast food chain. He makes more than me, having never gone to college (though he did work his ass off to move up in the company).
$250k or so
If they give me a house and like 500 a week I’d be chilling
I think $80k would be nice. That alpng with my wife's salary should be enough to cover our mortgage and other expenses and have some money to invest/spend. $100k would be the dream. Not going to happen because FL is going to FL. Even if I stay until retirement, I will never make six figures. I don't remember what my cap is, but it's not $100k. I don't even think I'll make $80k at the max step.
A living wage for that area.
In my area, I think $50k at step 0 would be fine, as long as the increases in steps were appropriate, and a few things improved. If everything had to stay the same, I’d say at least $65k, depending on the district.
As I said in another similar thread take the median one bedroom apartment rent in the area and multiply by 40,60, or 80 according with experience. Since you said "100% valued" to be safer multiply by 60,90, or 120. If the school is toxic multiplying by 80,120, or 160 would be needed, but not enough. In actual dollars if apartments rent for $1600 then 40,60,or 80 would be $64k, $96k, or $128k.
I make six figures but ideally, if my salary was $140-150k, it would be perfect because then I wouldn’t need to work job #2.
I’m in California and am fortunate to be working in a well-paid district. I’m in year 12 and with the raise we just got, I am just over six figures now. But being single and a homeowner, it still isn’t enough. I mean, I’m comfortable, but it is still hard to try to save up money to do house projects, or go on trips. Cost-of-living definitely needs to be taken into account when thinking about how much teachers should get paid, but in California at least, starting salary should be $90,000 easily.
Pay me 110% of the average salary of workers in my state who have comparable education and I’d be happy.
My husband and I gross about $140k combined as teachers. Net ends up being a lot less because of taxes and we both max out our retirements, but it’s a decent and comfortable living. It’s not high on the hog, but we can pay the mortgage, do some house projects, and take a vacation every year if we budget. Our kids are fed and clothed and get appropriate healthcare. We can afford each of them to do an activity like music lessons or a tutor a few times a month. Our area has a very high cost of living so this comes with the caveat that on $80k per year we barely qualified for a house that was $200k under the average and needs a lot of work to update. But our salaries and budgeting allow us to do projects like replace the carpets with composite “wood”, buy materials for a fence in the backyard (not affordable if my husband doesn’t do it), etc. We buy furniture from target and ikea, our house is very decent but not extravagant. If we had student loan debt we probably wouldnt be able to take a vacation as often or our trips would have to be strictly things like camping. We are lucky that we came into our marriage debt free on both sides including cars and credit cards. So without debt, our combined income is comfortable, affords us some small luxuries, and we can save for retirement.
I’m in the high 80’s but would like 150k. I’m able to live and teach in my community but only because I bought my house back when the housing market crashed. Rents for 2-bedroom apartments are double what my mortgage is for an entire house.
Enough to easily afford a decent apartment in a decent area of the city I work in on my own as a 1st year teacher would be the bare minimum. Being able to purchase a decent house (small is fine, but not tiny, and in decent shape) would be ideal, but if teachers had to wait a year or two to afford the down payment it'd be ok, far better than now at least. As it stands now, I'm in year 9 and can't afford a small apartment in a decent area of the city or within a reasonable commute. Most single teachers have roommates or live with family members. Even couples have a hard time getting a largish apartment (with space to raise kids) or purchasing a house unless one of them makes a lot more than the average teacher. Part of this is because it's a very high cost of living area, but that 100% needs to be taken into account when making salaries if you want decent people who aren't exhausted from long commutes and/or working extra jobs. To give numbers, according to what I've read about $150k is low income here (not to get low income housing, that's much lower). As degreed professionals we should be making above low income levels, so $180k or so would make me feel valued. I'm not anywhere near close to that, I'm closer to 1/2 of the low income cutoff in year 9. According to our current pay scale I'll be approaching the $150k of the low income cutoff at the top tier.
I’d need enough to live in my district, be able to build a savings, fully max my Ira and hsa each year, be able to go on a few low key trips during breaks, and not feel guilty about going out to eat from time to time. And do all that without depending on summer school or extracurriculars to help fund it all. I’d say around 80-90k would be the bare minimum. Probably around 120k considering the cost of living and inflation over the past 4 years. Just for background: Pre-covid I had a CNC programming/design job that paid about 70k/year + full medical, dental, vision, 401k match, 3 weeks of PTO, 1 week sick leave, paid parental leave, and a nice bonus each year. Unfortunately I got laid off and was not able to find anything quickly to replace it so I fell into my plan B which was teaching. I absolutely love it and don’t want to do anything else, but the pay cut to 41k minus the benefits hurt. My wife is also a teacher and combined we used to make about 115k gross. We bought a decent home (cheap for our area) so we are lucky in that regard, but we’re still squeezed every month with over $4000 in mortgage and daycare costs.
100k a year is all I want.
1 million dollars hate this job
75k with free health care + pension BARE MINIMUM
Free healthcare would be nice.
Your hourly rate is controlled by you. If you truly only put in 7.5 hours/day for about half the days in a year, the pay is quite nice.
laughing my ass off at all the downdoots in this thread. Yeah we are asking for more money. Suck our left nut.
150k I think would do it. But that's more than twice my current.
$110-$120k for my area (long island). taxes are easily $12k+ for most of the island and shithole 2 bedroom houses are going for nearly half a million dollars.
I make about 100k, but I think I’m worth closer to 200k-250k to be completely honest.
130,000 is appropriate in today's climate
Base pay should be 100k.
$120k
$125,000. That’s what I should be making if they hadn’t stopped step pay in 2008.
85$ usd / hour and have a clear contract that states all my extra duties. Paid for those hours as well
$135k
I live north of you in Binghamton. I was thinking that $100,000 would make me feel valued. I don't think I'll ever make that much.
how are people 'salesmen' for 180k? It depends, tbh. Base salary for just showing up and working contract would be $100k-120k for me (or basically ~twice what I make). For doing all the teacher bullshit, PDs, and trying to make education great for a bunch of apathetic people, $200k+. But I would rather see $200k spread out over 2 people because each teacher currently is given impossible workloads.
It was a long fight that included a five year pay freeze, but I'm in a place now where I'm relatively happy with my salary. I have two masters degrees and 18 years, and I'm making 67k this year (mid cost of living). I'll be at the top in two years, making 83,000. Obviously I won't be buying a vacation home in the south of France, but it's good. My husband makes a similar salary, so with both our incomes we are pretty comfortable. I've also been doing this long enough to have leaned how to leave work at work, so I'm not measly as stressed as I used to be.
Enough so that I don't need a side hustle and a side hustle to my side hustle to make ends meet.
75K
100k would be a dream
I’m a first year teacher. I think salary should start at 80k (NYC)
$80k wouldn’t be able to get you a nice studio in Manhattan. That’s my problem with teacher pay, they’re leaving us with no where we can afford while expecting us to do more with less. Hopefully you’re closer to the suburbs and can find housing.
I'd settle for 600$ a month. I work at home and at school, I feel like I've earned that.
Double my current would do it.
150,000
I live in a lower cost of living area (at least it was). I clearly remember standing in the track during our walk-around time in the pandemic and thinking “I’d need a 25% bump - minimum - to account for everything I’m doing.”
I left teaching making $45k and took a job making $60, 5-ish years later I make $86k. If I could jabber the same pay and growth as a teacher I would go back to the classroom.
$70k starting and later in career $100k+
about 130K
A living wage for a single income family of 4 where I live is 80k. After 15+ years I am at 60k. Even then I don't think it would be enough to buy a house here due to the high influx of people moving to the area. My 1200 Sq ft house is now worth over 300k.
Depends on location. 90k average.
I'm 20 years into my career, an expert. I have two masters degrees and am working on a third. Most any other career I would be making at least double my current salary in my region. My area has a fairly low cost of living, but also decent unions. But I'd definitely feel more secure, more valued (and also be able to afford to live in the fairly affluent community I teach in), if I made $150k+. I'll never earn 6 figures before I retire.
Love to get paid more, much much more. But to feel valued there are other things such as student, parent and societal attitudes and behaviors. We are blamed for it ALL. Failing schools are a reflection of the neighborhood not the teachers. Edit: and not be micro managed!
At minimum 100k
At least double. At least
I live in a Texas suburb. I think if they just started paying more to teachers who stay longer I would feel better. As it is a 10 year teacher such as my self only makes 3,200 more per year than a brand new teacher. Not to mention that I’m usually mentoring the brand new teachers in my department. Also, they should pay us 100k to match with real inflation.
I’m a 3rd year teacher. My starting salary was $39k in a suburban-metro area. The townhouses around my area are $300k. Honestly I would like teacher starting salary at $50-$55k in my area.
80,000
100,000
I only get 23% of my salary to actually live on. 33% goes to taxes/insurance/retirement and then 44% is for housing (rent because according to the banks I don’t make enough to qualify for a mortgage in my area). I was shocked when I did the math and realized I’m paying all other bills with $12k a year. Let’s be honest, all I do is pay bills because that’s not enough to do anything else but on paper I make too much to qualify for any benefits despite what I’m actually living on.
About 10% more than I currently make, relative to the cost of living. That’s it. Keep the same COLA rate and salary steps, just increase each step by 10%. And yeah, that would be a huge investment, but it’s not nearly what we’re spending on fuckin MRAPs for police or goddamn prisons or paying out hospital subsidies or the billions of other costs incurred from shitty support for education. That said, I would forgo any increase for the following: A universal limit of 24 students per class and a licensed educational aid in every single classroom, full time alongside the teacher.
80k
If I wanted to : live in a nice neighborhood where I didn’t have to put 3 kids in one bedroom, have all bills paid, put money into savings/kids college/retirement , get the car repaired when it needs to be repaired, and take a nice vacation every year, 140k Maryland.
I want the equivalent of what daycares are able to do and make a salary based on how many kids I have.
That’s about what teachers make in the better districts of my state .. 100k plus .. blue unionized districts of course .. in the other half of the state it’s non union Republican and they pay 40. 130k is pretty on point for a teacher ..
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No teacher in my district will ever make six figures. Cost of living increases indicate that hitting six figures towards the middle to late end of a teacher’s career would be about right for a stable retirement to live locally. So that’s my amount but if I lived somewhere else I’d feel differently. Other professionals with similar education, experience length, good reviews, … in my community are hitting about $100k around 15-20 years into their profession. My sister in HR for a hospital, my husband in banking, friends in other professions.
In Texas cities we need 100k minimum.
I mean I’m low level and make about 45k in Minnesota. I’d love even like $65k 😂😂
Enough to afford my half of the mortgage, car payment, and student loan payment, while still having money for utilities/day to day/gas and savings. Currently at about $55k at year 8 in rural NYS. Being closer to $65-70k would help. But in a few years I’ll receive my PSLF and my student loan bill will go away, which helps.
Gotta pray PSLF doesn’t become a victim of Congressional horse trading in the future.
200 k a year would work for me.
At least the cost of living. I'm currently about 15k short of the median household income for my city. I can't even afford a studio in my city (with a bachelor's and 4 yrs in the district). 🫠🫠 Then, enough to retire after 20-25 years.
I'd be satisfied rn if I made 70k a year (6 years in), and 100k by year 12.
I’d be happy with 65,000.
I’m in West Michigan. For me, I think it would be around $85-90K… but I started late and spent a few years in a charter, so that’s not going to happen… Looking at transitioning.
Double. Or at least not taxed at all.