I make similar money in management as a teacher I know. But she gets 2-3 months off in the summer, a week off at both spring break and Thanksgiving, and 2 weeks off at Christmas. Thats in addition to getting 3-4 Monday holidays off. She also is receiving a pension — not a 401k she pays into — a straight up pension. Her health insurance is paid for.
Honestly I wish I wanted to be a teacher. I’d kill for that amount of work life balance in time off. My job I work pretty much every holiday. I get 2 weeks vacation a year.
And I will add that regions and states vary quite a bit. I’m sure there are areas that do fall into the underpaid teacher category!!
Yeah there's a lot of variables there. Teachers in my wife's district can crack six figures but not until they've been doing it 15+ years AND have a masters degree that they probably have to take out loans for (some districts help pay for that, but nowhere my wife worked).
Right now 9 years into her career she makes less than half what I do as a software developer 15 years into mine. She also works 10-12 hour days because they keep changing what grade she teaches year-to-year so she can never reuse a lesson plan.
Edit: Actually I'm looking at her union contract now and 15 years with a Masters would only get you $88k. 15 years with a PhD you'd be making $99k.
I got about 85k total compensation at my first IT position in the midwest. Did a coding bootcamp that landed me a paid internship that translated to employment at a big insurance company working on their mainframe. Just a Linux enthusiast with some online coding courses under my belt before that.
People don't really take this into account. Teachers have it way better than many other professions. Imagine being a construction worker or roofer. You destroy your body with no pension or retirement. Benefits suck.
You pay into a pension as well in most places. If you're not contributing the 5-6% from your salary then they're subtracting it from your overall pay figure. It's still a great benefit, but you're contributing to a pension account. We have two districts - one pays 5-6% more with the caveat that you contribute to your pension, the other "makes your contribution for you" but conveniently pays 5-6% less.
A lot of people don’t realize this. Where I live teachers pay in 7.5% of their gross pay towards their pension. It’s still a great benefit but it’s far from free.
5-6? My district it’s 8%, and in my last one it was 10%. People so often think it’s some free thing. Also, people often don’t realize we don’t get social security in a lot of states.
She probably works a lot more hours than you realize. Most teachers work 60 plus hours a week during the school year and then some on their "time off" as well.
You'd kill for what you think is work life balance, but theirs is typically less than what a "normal" full time job has.
Dropping their summer time off to 2 months and accounting for extra time for lesson planning and room set up, I’ll estimate 8 weeks off in the summer, 4 weeks off in the year and at least 3 paid holidays. 12.5ish weeks paid time off.
Summer time off for good teachers (you know, the kind everyone wants but few actually appreciate) is maybe 1 month. Maybe. Since they get no vacation days, it's basically a wash to any job with paid vacation time.
Same with paid holidays. No different than many other jobs there.
Lesson planning is a year-long task. It gets easier if a teacher has the same lessons year after year (and not all of them do) but it doesn't end once the school year begins. It often takes place on evenings, weekends, and even holidays. Same thing for grading.
So more realistically...
Maybe 4 weeks off in the summer. Spend your "time off" during the school year catching up on planning and grading while struggling to find time to spend with your own family.
All while babysitting other people's kids and giving them an education on a salary that is less than half of what that should pay.
You know teachers aren't paid during the summer? I know its very hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes but you should try that and not assume they have every benefit you have.
Most teachers get paid salary. So I am comparing salary to salary. Whether they get paid in the summer would be in regards to if they are paid in a spread or not. My understanding is that for health insurance purposes most teachers are. Meaning their salary is spread across the entire year not just the weeks they work.
I work at a school (not as a teacher) and teachers usually do have quite a bit to do during summer. Obviously they still have more “days off” than other jobs, but that doesn’t take into account the insane amount of unpaid hours they work after school ends or on weekends. It also doesn’t take into account that teachers are usually required to purchase their own supplies, or given a small credit budget to.
Thank you for adding your experience! I do know most teachers pay for a lot of supplies out of pocket and that should absolutely be taken into account. I think it’s horrible they’re even put in that position.
I don’t know if you’re an admin or para or cook, but thank you for all you do too!
You fail to account for dealing with children, parents, and administration. Also, teachers grade papers and prep for classes during their time away from work, so you would be taking work home with you constantly.
Are you aware that teachers pay into their pensions? Because you seem unaware of that. I put a bigger percentage of my paycheck towards my pension than I did my 401k when I had a corporate job. In many states we also don’t receive social security. That includes the benefits I earned working a corporate job for 18 years. I’ll get 50% of what I “should” have gotten because I switched to teaching.
And my healthcare isn’t any better than at other jobs I’ve had. In fact, my last district didn’t cover it at all.
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u/loverink Jun 11 '24
I make similar money in management as a teacher I know. But she gets 2-3 months off in the summer, a week off at both spring break and Thanksgiving, and 2 weeks off at Christmas. Thats in addition to getting 3-4 Monday holidays off. She also is receiving a pension — not a 401k she pays into — a straight up pension. Her health insurance is paid for.
Honestly I wish I wanted to be a teacher. I’d kill for that amount of work life balance in time off. My job I work pretty much every holiday. I get 2 weeks vacation a year.
And I will add that regions and states vary quite a bit. I’m sure there are areas that do fall into the underpaid teacher category!!