Teacher wages?

Question

I have read up on teaching wages, and in the books it perceives teachers as making too much money. I am in my 3rd year of college to become a teacher and I don't think the wages are too high. There are so many more classes and certifications and field study that is required. I think starting out at 28,000 a year in the state of Florida is kind of bad actually. Thoughts?

I'm not in for the money, I'm just wondering.

Answer 1

Teaching is a very low paid profession. To be a teacher one must do it for the love of children and learning not for the money. I am a teacher in Texas. The benefits are the vacation times and the satisfaction in a job well done - not monetary. Good luck.

Answer 2

What books are you reading? There is no way that teachers are "high paid."

Here are average starting salaries for people with 4-year college degrees:
Accounting (private): $44,564
Management trainee: $35,811
Consulting: $49,781
Sales: $37,130
Accounting (public): $41,039
Financial/Treasury analysis: $45,596
Software design/development: $53,729
Design/construction engineering: $47,058
Registered nurse: $38,775
Physician Assistants: $41,820

Teaching: $29,733


Overall career averages (having experience time):

With a B.A./4-year degree
Tech support staff $48,577
Real Estate collateral appraiser $81,720
Staff Nurse $58,385

With a Master's Degree (and after 10 years, most teachers do have Master's due to professional development requirements): Tech Systems administrator $56,533
Financial Advisor $99,984
Lawyer $91,000
Usability professional/technology $86,689
Pharmacist $95,847
Psychologist $73,605

Teacher: $38,500


And before you say that "well, service professions that are 'callings' make less...."

From Salary Wizard:

Associate Pastor: $56,268
Pastor: $77,651


Here are some real factors.... involving a bit of a history lesson:

Until a few decades ago, education was optional. Most people had a 3rd, 6th, or 8th grade education at best. Only those going on to become business owners or professionals and therefore were college bound went on through high school. Most people in the United States are unaware of this now, and consider childhood education to be a right rather than a privilege (even though in most areas of the world apprenticeship and manual laborer tracks are still very much the norm).

That "optional" aspect of education, until the middle of the 20th century, meant that anyone who was not a natural academic learner left school and either took on an apprenticeship for skilled crafts, or became a manual laborer. Teachers did not need to have much training in order to teach the "natural" learners, at least until the college prep stage. Even there, the students by that point had good study skills and were motivated, so the demands of a teacher were relatively simple. A century ago, a person could be a teacher for children with a high school diploma, and only needed a college degree for high school and college instuctor positions. Those college degrees only involved subject knowledge training, not any sort of deep involvement in actual teaching strategies or methology. This was because STUDENTS WHO HAD DIFFICULTY LEARNING WERE NOT TAUGHT ACADEMICS.

As academic education became mandatory, and then achievement of all students, including the students with extreme difficulties, became important, teacher training needs started to climb. Teachers today have to be highly skilled and flexible diagnosticians, curriculum designers, instructors, psychologists, social activity coordinators, and social workers, all at once. No child, regardless of learning ability, can fail to make progress or the teacher is blamed regardless of any other factors affecting that child (motivation, personal interests, any disabilities, home environment, etc.).

However, our society's perceptions of what a teacher does and what value teaching has did not keep up with the real and actual demands of the profession. Over the past 50 years, teachers have been expected to teach more and more students, with increasing levels of interfering factors to their learning, with less and less comparative resources.

Teachers earn what they do because they are paid off property taxes through the state, by grouchy taxpayers who don't want to actually shell out to ensure truly effective ratios. Teachers provide 6 hours of instruction to their students each day (7.5 hours at work each day...remaining time being planning and duties), for 180 days per year (add weekends to those days to show number of weeks served directly in the classroom is 36 weeks), plus spend the remaining weeks moonlighting at other jobs to make up their income problems and/or take professional development classes to keep their licensures.

People keep complaining that the cost is too high. Yet they want increasing levels of results with less resources and more and more difficult student needs, abilities, etc. "Here, now that you can rock climb, go climb Everest without any equipment except this one rope and this backpack...what do you mean you want spikes for safety, arctic clothes for warmth, and food to eat? How rude!"

Answer 3

my mom is a teacher and makes 35,000-ish a year. Not nearly enough money for the work she puts into the job.

Answer 4

i am from Asia,but my average salary is less than $400

Answer 5

IM me. I'd like to chat with you about that.