Do you remember that feature that used to appear in newspapers and magazines? Can you spot what’s wrong with this picture?
| City | Median individual income |
Teacher starting income |
| San Francisco | $72,041 | $52,161 |
| Chicago | $62,097 | $58,365 |
| New York | $41,625 | $61,070 |
| Houston | $33,626 | $61,500 |
Median individual incomes are from the Census Bureau. Starting teacher salaries are for bachelors only, no experience and are taken from the sites of each school district.
These figures dramatize a couple of things. First, there’s pretty obviously a national market for entry level teachers. Second, teachers aren’t paid enough in San Francisco. And third, if you’re wondering why people are moving to Texas from California and Illinois, this should give you a pretty good idea. I suspect you can buy a pretty decent home in Houston on a salaray of $61,500.
When my mom started teaching in St. Louis in 1940, teachers were required to be unmarried women. When my mom and dad married my mom when to work for the St. Louis County school system which didn’t require teachers to be unmarried. When teachers were unmarried women low wages may not have been just but they were certainly a possibility. Times have changed. Teachers must be paid a living wage and that will vary from place to place in the country.
“These figures dramatize a couple of things. First, there’s pretty obviously a national market for entry level teachers.”
My daughter was at $64K at a charter school in DC. So yes, it looks like a national market.
Starting pay is highly variable around here. It is in the mid 30s for some of our rural counties and as high as low 50s elsewhere. What I think we see is that places that have decided to try to increase pay have increased student:teacher ratios. There is a good correlation between pay and the local economy but it is not 100% with some places paying more or less than expected based upon the local economy.
From my biased POV I think it is a weird national market. National conditions matter, but I think a lot of rural places count on local kids coming back to be close to family and that lets them pay a lot less. It has mostly kind of worked so they have been sort of insulated from national conditions. If they hit a point where kids dont want to come back they have problems.
Steve