Public School Teachers Are Highest Paid State Workers; Compensation Doubles the Average in Private Industry

Written on by V2A, Filed under
Education, Government, Labor, Taxes, Taxpayer Waste
 31


Public school teachers receive greater average hourly compensation in wages and benefits than any other group of state and local government workers and receive more than twice as much in average hourly wages and benefits as workers in private industry, according to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Public primary, secondary and special education teachers are paid an average of $56.59 per hour in combined wages and benefits, BLS said in the report released last week.

That is slightly more than twice the $28.24 in average hourly wages and benefits paid to workers in private industry.

In fact, according the BLS, the $28.24 in average hourly wages and benefits that private-industry workers now earn in the United States is less than the overall national average for hourly wages and benefits of $30.11.

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  • BE

    Unbelievable!

    (no wait, I can believe it.)

    Unfathomable!

  • garydt

    What state is this in? It sure isn’t Arizona. Im guessing the rest of the story is that the study was for DC only as they have the highest cost per student in ghe nation. In AZ teachers avaverage $30,000 per year. Next time publish the whole story.

    • Barney

      It seems you are ignoring the obvious, public school teachers get about half the year off. 30 becomes 60 pretty quickly when that is factored in. Also take a good look at pension and other benefits. Teachers are key to our future, the problem is that the majority of them are under the control of the liberal DoE and are indoctrinating the youth of this nation to follow the progressive mandates.

    • Randy131

      You're listing only their average base pay, but after you add in their medical and dental entitltement costs, as well as their retirement plan costs, and their paid sick leave and vacation time costs, and take into account they get all this for working no more than 9 months, and what you are quoting is probably just entry level pay average, you'll find out those unionized teachers you're defending are getting the same outrageous pay as all other unionized public employees get at the expense of the taxpayer who gets half of what those teachers get for doing the same or similar jobs. Unions flourish in the public sector because Democrats give them their every demand so as to keep getting their support and campaign funding the Unions organize for them, but in the private sector those same Union demands have bankrupted or caused factories to move where Union membership is not mandatory for people to be able to work for a living, even to other countries, which is the reason we have only 25% of the Industry left in the USA as we had in the 1960s.

      • Randy131

        A voucher system will save the tax payers huge amounts of money on their property taxes and assure the poor children have the same educational benefit as the rich, but will cause the destruction of teacher Unions because of parents choosing to remove their children from failing public schools and enrolling them in private and religious schools, who educate the children at twice the level of public schools, for half the cost, because teachers at private and religious schools are held accountable for how their students perform on tests, unlike the public schools that the Unions prevent this from happening. This is why private and religious schools continually outperform public schools and why public schools have so many teachers who fail to educate their students.

    • http://Visiontoamerica.com notassmart

      Its an hourly-rate analysis. If you earn $30k a year over 9 months of work, its the equivalent of $40k a year for those who actually work year-round. Add to that the benefits packages, always more generous than the private sector, and you can see where the math leads you. If you only work part of the year and have a more generous benefits package than your neighbor in the private sector who works a full year, your "hourly rate" will be greater even if your actual earnings are less than your neighbor's. And then your neighbor gets to continue to contribute to your benefits package despite not being able to afford the same for himself.

      I'm amazed at how easily the public school teachers seem to forget the rest of working America works twelve months a year, gets only 5 days of national holidays, and often works overtime, skips vacations we can't afford the time or money to take, and in hard times often have to accept pay reductions or benefit reductions in order to stay employed at a struggling company, while the teachers run picket lines if their automatic pay increases are threatened.

      But you don't want to see that part of "the whole story," do you, garydt?

  • regina

    I cannot believe the ignorance of some people in this country. It is no wonder that teachers have to fight to earn even an ounce of respect, with the blatant disdain some people have for educators. I have taught seventh grade for 16 years, and any of you that think that I work an 8 hour day, you’ve got another thing coming. Oh, and those “summers off” you speak of-we are a year-round school system, so we don’t even get 2 months off anymore, and during that time “off”, I have to get 30 inservice hours done (5 full days). We don’t get paid during the summer, either, so it’s not “vacation” days. Most teachers I know work a second job in the summer. When you factor in the amount of time I spend planning (notassmart-you try teaching the same lessons to a different group of kids each year, and see how that works for you), being a bookeeper of money turned in, grading papers, entering those grades,disciplining unruly teenagers (I regularly have 30 students a class), corresponding with parents, being a referee to drama queen cat-fighting, making power-points for your lessons, getting ready for your 4 major evaluations a year, preparing students for state tests, giving remediation to needy students before and after school, searching the web for exciting lessons that won’t bore our sensory-overloaded youth of America to death, well, let’s just say, I’d be glad for anyone to come do my job for one day and see if I’m not worth every penny. It really shows how little people in general think of teachers- thank you to those who realize that today’s teachers are not the “sit-behind-the-desk, assigning busy work” teachers some of us had.

    • http://Visiontoamerica.com notassmart

      Yawn. You still don't see how easy you have it because you haven't been in the private sector for over 16 years. We can all run a laundry list of what we do in a year. The difference is who pays our salary. Profits pay mine. Working people's tax dollars pay teachers', and those in the private sector making less than you still have to contribute not only to your salary, but your benefits package. How much of my benefits package are you willing to pay? When your pay is dependent upon performing well enough to turn a profit, and when your neighbor doesn't have to pay for your benefits, then you'll be informed enough to know what us ignorant people already know.

  • regina

    And to bill bradford- who do you think is teaching the servicepeople to defend our country? You wouldn’t have computer programmers and analysts, medical professionals, weapons experts,etc. Get off your high horse and go to a school sometime and volunteer, or substitute. It’s okay, you can put some salt on the crow you’d have to eat. Get over yourself.

    • CherokeeDan

      In the real world, Regina, people are paid based on what they produce. I've heard all the sob stories about how hard poor teachers work but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Students are graduating who can barly read their diploma…they know nothing about our system of government and nothing about the founding principles of this country and, Lord knows, NOTHING about why this country and our system of capitalism is superior to any other in the world. Could it be that that is because public school teachers either do not know or worse, don't believe it, themselves? After all, you all are the product of public education yourselves. No wonder there is such a movement (resisted by public education establishment) to get kids out of public schools and into charter and religious schools.

      • CherokeeDan

        And, Regina, you're not teaching any of that stuff you ask Bill Bradford about—-the military has their own schools to teach what they need…been there, done that. I would suggest that it is you who needs to get off your high horse and be grateful you're getting paid as much as you are. In the private sector (without a powerful union behind you) you wouldn't even keep your job turning out the kind of product you and your ilk are turning out.

  • Bill Bradford

    why am i not surprised that schoolteachers are so highly paid yet people are always complaining about how hard it is to be a teacher. Liberals want to blame everything on our nations job creators when really it is the government taking over our lives that is the problem. Our leaders should be focused on fighting terrorism and the threat of sharia law in america instaead of trying to take away our rights and our free speech and our god given freedom to practice our religion, like liberals want to do. We don't need higher pay for teachers we need highter pay for real hard working american citizens.

  • John

    The teachers I know would really question this. My guess is the study ASSUMES a 40 hour or less work week for teachers, as in just counting the time they are teaching/on campus. Reality is teachers typically are working on grading papers and doing lesson plans at home every night/many nights and on weekends, whereas most workers/employees (NOT the self-employed or entrepreneurs) are not. So the basis for comparison is likely way off.

    • GUEST

      Don't forget all of the holiday time off as well as summer time off.

    • http://Visiontoamerica.com notassmart

      Oh Good Grief! "The teachers I know…" They work on grading papers and planning lessons from home? Really? Did U.S. History change that much from last semester that they can't use the same lesson plan more than once? Did Science change that much from last year that the lesson plan is outdated? Does it take that much extra work to count the planets down from 9 to 8 now that Pluto got kicked out of the mix? The science teachers must have been put into a tailspin having to adjust that lesson plan. And grading papers at home is a tiring task? You must be a public teacher to assume the rest of us aren't working overtime from home.Get real.

      • Bob Fransis

        "Did U.S. History change….". Seriously? Of course history hasn't changed, but the requirements for the teachers change on at least a yearly basis. They are Forced to change lesson plans.

      • Luke

        Teachers are always needing to change lesson plans because there is a constant flow of more information in science, math, social studies, etc. etc… Besides that, different kids learn different ways, and lesson plans for some kids DONT WORK for other kids.

        I certainly don't want a teacher that just repeats the same lessons year after year after year…. !!!

  • Singer

    I wonder how many teachers making that much money would find it hard to give up that job if they were told what to teach, even if it went against what they know is true, or lose their job.

  • Jane

    Fellow Wisconsinites need to support Walker or we will be taken over by the 'Wisconsin Mafia' again (NEA calls WI teachers union).

  • Art

    You can always tell by the comments that people have family or close friends that are in the teaching profession. What about all ther holidays, winter break, spring break, work days where they really don't work.

    • Luke

      "really don't work" ?
      There is a TON of work that teachers do during both Christmas and summer vacation.

      Besides, have you ever spent a day with a ton of kids in one room? It's stressful. It's hard. Teachers work A LOT harder than other government workers – like census bureau – where the workers just fill in their office hours by sitting in front of a computer! There is no real "down time" as a teacher at school – that's why teachers take their work home (grading, etc…)

  • Patti Patriot

    What they forgot to add in to the hourly rate is the hours teachers spend outside official classroom hours. Teachers spend 2-3 hours or more per day off the clock grading papers, going to required meetings, making lesson plans, talking to parents, participating in staff development, attending PTO sessions, and special programs where students are performing. The teaching day does not end when the students leave and often begins before the students arrive. Many other professions have no such requirements, or they are taken care of during normal work hours. I speak as a retired teacher. Evidently I taught in the wrong states as my salary was never that good. Never worked in a state that required union participation, thank goodness.

  • Marc Jeric

    After having brought American education from among the first in the world to the level of Zimbabwe, it is time to prosecute the teachers unions as being by definition criminal conspiracies against the people under the RICO Act laws.

  • Stephen Russell

    OWS protestors are those products of Public Ed.
    End Run.

  • ricbee

    There is plenty of good caring teachers but they care more about their pay & what good they can do themselves than about the students. Public education is yet another failed government project.

  • STSC/SS

    OK, I am High School Science teacher, and a conservative. I am also kind of tired of being beat up for making a choice to become a teacher after spending 20 years in the Navy.

    Let's do a little math shall we? The average wage quoted above, $28.24 times 50 weeks times 5 days times 8 hours per day equals about 56,000$. There is no mention here about what training those guys had or what jobs they are doing. All we know is they are on a hourly wage.

    Now I choose to be a teacher for many reasons, and I am not ashamed to admit it, one of those reasons is that I would get more time off than most other people and I would still make a decent wage, not to mention all that other humble crap that every other teacher spouts about helping the world.

    Because I chose to work hard, jump though all the hoops that it took to become a teacher, get a B.S. and a Masters degree, and another 90 college credits on top of that–enough to get a PHD if I had choose that route, I now work 183 days per year, contracted for 7.5 hours per day (I won't mention all the extra hours, I consider it part of the job and you guys don't care about how many extra hours I work anyway). If we multiply those hours I am paid to work by $56.59 we get about $78,000.

    Am I over paid? Do me a favor, Google average wage for a masters degree, or a Phd before you answer that. Sure I am over paid as compared to the average hourly wage worker in private industry or working for the government. Am I over paid compared to someone with a comparable education? Doing similar jobs? I don't think so

    The point is I choose to invest my time and money into the education to become a teacher knowing that if I wanted to make more money I could by choosing a different career. I am very happy with the trade off.

    • http://Visiontoamerica.com notassmart

      I have a J.D. 19 years of schooling, and 15 hours a year of continuing education I or my employer must pay for. Based on the hours I work, I earn about $31.88 an hour. So I make more than you. But because of the level of work I am required to perform based on the profession, I make about $25.00 less than you for each hour of work.

      And if I screw up and don't do a good job, I get fired or sued.

      No one but me and my employer fund my benefits, and I don't get health insurance.

      The question isn't whether you're "overpaid" the question is where does all the self pity your colleagues – although not yourself, apparently – exhibit come from? Why the indignation toward the people who pay the teachers' salaries without an expectation of an equal level of indignation from those of us who pay the salaries for the education of kids who increasingly fall behind the level of students in other countries. I spent 12 years in public education. I saw some of the level of effort put in by my teachers. All things considered, I think public sector teachers have nothing to complain about, except maybe the behavior of some of their students.

  • ChangeComingOn

    Teachers play a very important role in the future of our children. They deal with kids that are never disciplined or taught anything at home. They have to jump through hoops on these "lesson-plans" overseen by the state. (HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!)
    The paper work is enormous. Always problem kids to be dealt with. They deserve the pay.

  • samtman

    I think that pbulic school teachers deserve every penny they make. With an economy since REagonamics where boht parents have to work, children get less supervision and encouragement to work harder in school. Teachers have to compete with 24 hour 300 chanel TV , Ipods, cell phones, greater peer pressure than ever, drugs , crime. Trying to teach under these circumstances has become a monumental task. When most of us went to school teachers had non or verky few of these problems. The teachers who educate our children deserve our help and our gratitude.

    • http://Visiontoamerica.com notassmart

      Then why not end government-run education and let the private sector do it all? In the private sector – even in education – you can contract terms that require you to perform or you're fired; you can negotiate your compensation for a level of performance greater than the guy in the next classroom, and a private school can tell students to behave, pay attention and perform the activities assigned or get kicked out and end up in a different and possibly lower-performing school. The government-run system makes all of this impossible.

      Like Reagan said; Government isn't the solution to the problem, it is the problem. Get government unions out of the business of educating (or not) our children and much of the difficulties you cite will be addressed, rather than confronted with more of our tax money but without solutions.

      We're simply tired of paying more, getting less, and hearing the complaints by teachers and the unions. Understand?

      • CherokeeDan

        Well said. Even better than my reply to the ever-suffering Regina.

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