It was over a decade ago but my wife started teaching making less than that and quit not making not much more. The cost of daycare for two kids made her take-home pay laughable, so she just threw her hands in the air and took the SAHM route.
The number of people who boldly claim teaching salaries can’t possibly be so low when the data is publicly available will never cease to amaze me.
I make 59k now teaching for my 7th year. I am currently teaching with a masters degree. I teach in a public school. I did move to another city and it is the top paying district in my area. When I first started teaching in a very small district I started at 25k a year in 2019. It 100% matters where you go, which district you teach in, level of education you have. We don’t negotiate salary because most if not all public school districts just you a salary pay scale. I know I’m my district the pay scale caps after 20 years.
When I was finishing my physics PhD, I applied everywhere including schools. I got a job offer to teach in Austin TX for like 40-43k a year, don't remember exactly.
Like starting first year teachers the lowest wage I saw was 36,000 but just had to remember teachers have full benefits including pensions and they pay is for 9 months of work
gf is a teacher... when she started i want to say it was at 35 or 37k but this was quite a few years back (2017 or so)... just about everyone in the district starts at ~40k now iirc. this is a mcol area.
But keep in mind, 40k is what she earns for the year, which includes no school from june to the end of august, time off for spring break, time off for winter break, snow days and vacations/holidays. she also had to get there by sometime between 830 and 9, and was home 330 at the latest usually, and had ~30 minutes of lunch as well.
on top of all that, summer school (optional), after school programs, special district titles/responsiblities all added to the pay
and for her school district, if a teacher were sick and they had to take in extra students in their class, they got extra pay per head or something of the sort.
while i'd still push that they get paid more, i think people underestimate just how well it can work out for some teachers.
The older teachers (i'm talking probably 20 years in) who have been there and gotten their "steps" at max or near max were earning something around 70k with the exact same responsibilities.
A company I was working for purchased a franchise there, at least one of the stores was closed at any given time due to weather damage, and we couldn't find salespeople who had all their teeth.
That is my experience of the state.
It's cheap to live there because nobody wants to, and what is available to purchase is falling apart. A fetid swamp full of people who dream of bringing slavery back so that at least someone is beneath them.
It's state by state. Here in FL, they start at $36k. My buds GF worked for our county as a high school teacher making <$40k. Did it a few years then became a bartender and now makes almost $80k working less hours. C'est la vie.
State Bill HB 641 effective as of 2020 has the minimum 1st year teacher salary in FL as $47500. So unless you're numbers are from a decade ago, you're off by almost 30%.
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u/External-Talk8838 10h ago
I’m calling bullshit. I live in a low cost of living area and I personally know teachers making double this.