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I think teacher pay is still reasonable in blue states (NOT right to work states) that give yearly steps. If I didn't get yearly steps it would be a downgrade in morale. In my state in the Pacific Northwest we still get yearly steps and have a strong union. If you have your masters you begin at $43,000 and after 13 years you top out at $73,000.
I teach for a county district. The county routinely ranks as one of the top three counties in the US when it comes to median household income. 3 Wealthiest U.S. Counties Are Virginia Suburbs of D.C.
At the Master's level our pay scale does not hit six figures.
Here are salaries, for the sake of argument, from Highland Park High School in Chicago's affluent North Shore suburbs...they range from a first year teacher making just over $23,000 just under $188,000 for a teacher with 33 years' experience.
Now, not all schools are Highland Park, with a very wealthy tax base. It's the Midwest, but not especially representative of the Midwest, with its celebrity athlete residences and Frank Lloyd Wright homes. I grew up in a rural farming community of a few thousand, about three hours west of Highland Park. The main industries are agriculture and agricultural processing. The salaries for teachers there range from $33,000 for a teacher who has 6 years' experience, to $94,000 for a teacher with 43 years' experience (All Illinois public school district employee salaries are publicly searchable online).
As far as how far one's salary may go in the community where he or she teaches, million dollar home listings are typical of Highland Park. In my hometown, average home price is around $95,000.
The biggest issue in my opinion is not the pay. In many school districts it is the stress level due to numerous discipline problems and increasingly fewer options for dealing with them. I think that my BP is giving me good data. At the end of a typical school day it is 160/100. After two days at home it is 120/80. Many of my colleagues have gone on multiple meds to help deal with the stress associated with the job. Additionally, many of the younger teachers are dealing with anxiety issues related to the stress in and out of the classroom. They often leave within a few years angry that they wasted so much time and money on course work and testing only to find out that academics and the quality of their lessons are secondary concerns and that they hadn't received any real preparation to help them deal with the behavioral issues in the classroom.
I don't have to tell my children what to do. They see it for themselves in their own classrooms. They often ask how the teachers can stand having to deal with disruptive and disrespectful students day in and day out and this is in a school district with far fewer discipline problems than many other districts.
Here are salaries, for the sake of argument, from Highland Park High School in Chicago's affluent North Shore suburbs...they range from a first year teacher making just over $23,000 just under $188,000 for a teacher with 33 years' experience.
Now, not all schools are Highland Park, with a very wealthy tax base. It's the Midwest, but not especially representative of the Midwest, with its celebrity athlete residences and Frank Lloyd Wright homes. I grew up in a rural farming community of a few thousand, about three hours west of Highland Park. The main industries are agriculture and agricultural processing. The salaries for teachers there range from $33,000 for a teacher who has 6 years' experience, to $94,000 for a teacher with 43 years' experience (All Illinois public school district employee salaries are publicly searchable online).
As far as how far one's salary may go in the community where he or she teaches, million dollar home listings are typical of Highland Park. In my hometown, average home price is around $95,000.
What surprises me there is the range between $23k and $188k. That's quite a gap.
In VA districts post their scales online. Our county district's standard 194 day MA scale starts at about $53k and tops at $98,700 with about 29 years of experience. https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/f...ay-teacher.pdf
The average home price varies across the county. In my zip, which is probably considered pretty average middle of the road, the median home value is $506,200 according to Zillow.
40K isn't what you make for life. Some teachers make 6 figures or close to it, mid-career. And a couple starting out, each making 40K, perhaps 45K+ by the time they're ready to start a family, definitely can support a family in most locations.
Also, your son has options. He doesn't need to teach in a public school, and put up with all the politics, the special-needs kids mainstreamed into his classroom, and the bad discipline problems. He can opt for private schools. Sure, he'll make less, but he won't burn out before his career even gets off the ground.
Operative word "SOME". As of 2014 the average teacher salary in Michigan was just over $61k. If "some" teachers make close to $100k, what are MOST teachers making? IME the ones who make anywhere near $100k are taking on extra responsibility like being the year book advisor, department chair, teaching drivers ed after school, or coaching. Coaching pays pretty well in my district. If I could coach football I could increase my salary by 30%.
We've been in a pay freeze or cut situation for the entire 7 years I've been in my district. I wish I could say my district was an anomaly but this is typical right now in Michigan. The pay situation coupled with the political climate for teaching is going to create an across the board teacher shortage. If I were younger I'd move back into engineering but I'm stuck. No one wants to hire a 57 year old engineer who's been out of the game for 10 years. Trust me. I've tried. I'm competing with 20 somethings who couldn't find work when they graduated from engineering school.
I will be lucky to see 5 step increases before I retire in 10-12 years (which will put my pay at just short of $60k). The money just isn't there. Costs keep going up but the state isn't increasing the money school's get. So they freeze our pay, cut our benefits, and put one more student in each class to make up the shortfall.
I always end up teaching in areas that pay crap and cost $$$. My bad choices, I suppose! Getting $50k, with my years of experience and a masters, and topping out there (because of salary freezes and no regular step increases) in a place where houses that aren't falling off a cliff cost a minimum of $600K and milk is almost $6/ gallon isn't a great financial situation. I've never known any teacher in all the states in which I lived make anywhere close to 6 figures. And yes, public education has been having issues for a while now (and don't look to be getting any better in the near future). But career choice is still the adult's to make. And I am so thankful that bright, dedicated, and compassionate people are still willing to go into education. I am thankful for my kids' teachers every day (I myself left classroom teaching a few years back to work in a support position in the schools).
I understand how COLA works. That wasn't my question to the OP.
A sub-6 figure income is a good living in most places. Obviously if you want to live in NYC or CA, then you will not be rich. I don't think basing ones career should be done on how attractive one might be to a gold digger. That was how the OP sounded to me.
I wonder if the OP is expecting his son's future wife wouldn't work. That, likely, is an erroneous assumption. Two people making roughly $70K each can do well enough. The OP also isn't taking into account wage increases; he's assuming his son would be making starting pay through his entire career, which is disingenuous.
I think it's sad that someone like his son, who seems to be keen on teaching, and may have a gift for it, would be discouraged from his chosen profession. Heaven knows that schools need good teachers, and boys need male role models! The right partner for a guy like that is a woman who respects values of community service, and devotion to children and inspiring future generations. There are plenty of women like that out there.
I'm the daughter of 2 retired teachers and I have to agree with you..... I also work in education at a low income, inner city elementary school as a school counselor (we are usually viewed as unnecessary sadly).
I currently like most of my coworkers, most of our kids, and my principal, but the abuse you take from the challenging students and difficult, demanding parents makes you start to rethink your career choice. While I generally like my job, I work too hard for my paycheck, spend most of my time with students with behavior problems, and have to try to be nice to irrational parents (often who are aggressive and violent). I have a Master's plus and do wish I chose a more stable market where you take less abuse.... It really is awful to me that the kids have more rights than the adults. We have a number of violent, disruptive kids who you cannot lay a finger on otherwise they run home and tell their parents that a staff member touched them. We actually have students (always the same students....) who regularly report that any substitute teacher that they have had have grabbed them or something similar.
Look at it this way. If you are a teacher, you will NEVER have to look for a job. The Job looks for you. Soooo many school districts, at least in my State of North Carolina, are ALWAYS hiring. They have the billion dollar budgets, they have the upcoming schools yet you will find classrooms with year-round substitute teachers simply because no one wants to be a teacher. Please don't stop your son from teaching being a qualified person to teach my future children.
Look at it this way. If you are a teacher, you will NEVER have to look for a job. The Job looks for you. Soooo many school districts, at least in my State of North Carolina, are ALWAYS hiring. They have the billion dollar budgets, they have the upcoming schools yet you will find classrooms with year-round substitute teachers simply because no one wants to be a teacher. Please don't stop your son from teaching being a qualified person to teach my future children.
That's largely regional though. My brother has been living in Raleigh for a few years. A lot of his friends wives' were teachers at some point but quit due to the pay being so bad statewide. I used to teach in NV and it was like that too despite no state income tax. Teaching jobs were pretty easy to come by statewide but low pay.
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