Teacher salary

[ak-rev]

there is no way they make over 100k annually heres a link to the pension plans not that impressive if you ask me.

Select Your Retirement System and Plan :: Washington State Department of Retirement Systems

[gwix98]

Certainly few if any teachers in this state make over 100K, but many after 30 years in better
paid districts make 80K. And if they are in the older retirement plan they get 2% per year times
number of years teaching, typically 30 years if they stick it out.
If they start at age 22, they could be finished at age 52, like a number of my relatives.

So (0.60) times 80,000/yr divided by 12= $4000 per month.
That looks pretty good to me. But then I am not a Microsoft software engineer.
An immediate annuity purchased today would have to equal about $800,000 to yield that monthly income
for life for a 60 year old retiree.

Tale a look at: http://wwwb.thenewstribune.com/datab..._pay/index.php

[ak-rev]

So if you are in the best school districts, work for more than thirty years, and were hired before 1977 you're retirement package is fairly nice.

Now lets pretend you have just graduated and are looking at becoming a teacher would you want to work for a school district in washington state?

[gwix98]

Originally Posted by ak-rev

So if you are in the best school districts, work for more than thirty years, and were hired before 1977 you're retirement package is fairly nice.

Now lets pretend you have just graduated and are looking at becoming a teacher would you want to work for a school district in washington state?

That's a great question, and coincidentally I have a son who is a substitute teacher in our
area (Edmonds-Mukilteo-Everett). Frankly, its tough getting a continuing contract, and many
of his graduating class went overseas to do ESL in South Korea and Japan. Others left the
field before even starting..no jobs in this area.

The folks in TRS1 and PERS1 have the best plan, but there are only a few of them still
working as 1977 was a long time ago. My wife would be done except she left the system, and
returned 10 years later.

I advised my son to look elsewhere, but he wanted to remain in Washington and had a spouse's
career to consider as well. There are jobs in other states so I guess it comes down to how badly
you want to live in Washington State.

I suspect if it was me, I'd stick it out and hope that eventually I would get a position.
I just retired from a career, that paid less than teaching, but work was very steady, and we
just learned to live on less, and it sure helped that I had a working wife.
I also was not saddled with a huge student loan as so many of the new graduates have today.

But, I can sure understand why someone would leave the state, as it is not cheap to live here.

[jdoyle5]

I work in the Issaquah School District. We are for sure underpaid, however I also think we have a lot of other things that contribute to being satisfied with a job here. We are paid for staff development, given teacher work days, opportunities to earn more by taking trainings.

I wouldn't just look at a salary schedule and let that make a decision for you. Do some investigating. Walk into some schools. Ask the principal what is their focus in their school.

There is so much more to a great school or district than just money.