Are teachers truly underpaid?

Question

I hear this constantly and I really wonder.
Being in New Jersey, there is an initiative for all teachers to start at $40k salaries.
Well, for the weeks they work, that pay is comparable to an office worker making about $60k per year for the weeks they work (I estimated a 50-hour work week because I know teachers do more than just 'classroom time' as do corporate workers).
Then comes the benefits. Medical. Pension. Etc.
AND lets not forget that with those summers off, at least in theory, a teacher could work and earn even more money for themselves.
Personally, if I could have almost 3 months vacation I'd take what a teacher gets paid and be a mighty happy camper at my job.

Are there any teachers out there willing to admit that they have a good job? They are paid pretty well? They do have good benefits?

I feel like I'm being slammed a bit for raising this question so I want to elaborate:
While I presently work in the corporate world I am considering switching to teaching.
I work late at night and on weekends, too. I'm salaried so if I work 40 hours or 60 hours I get the same paycheck.
I've got one degree and am now spending my precious personal time and my own money to get another one!
I will agree that teachers don't get respect from their students and the parents and that isn't fair to them.
More than anything I am making a comparison between how much I put into my 'desk jockey' job and how much a teacher puts into their job. I work OT, I have to go to school on my own time and at my own expense, just like teachers do.
So maybe I would rather be doing something else (teaching) for the personal satisfaction it would bring.
And if I did have summers off, I could earn extra money with the degrees I have.
And if you don't like my questions, stop reading them.

Answer 1

I am a veteran teacher in California and do not think that teachers are underpaid, per se.
I throughly enjoy my vacation time AND my job. If I thought I was not making enough money, I would find a different job. Granted, I believe that some teachers in other states are underpaid. I think it is a state by state, region by region and district by district question rather than a question as a whole, if teachers are underpaid.

Answer 2

There are a couple of problems with your comparison. First, you compare a teaching job to an "office worker". Under today's federal guidelines, teachers must have a master's degree to get that whopping 40K salary. Most teachers work 10 month contracts. If you compare the 40K for 10 months to a regular yearly salary, it comes out to 48K a year, not 60. As far as benefits go, my friends in the corporate world would laugh at what teachers consider employment benefits. You should also think about the starting salary versus the cost of living in your area. 40K is not a lot of money in NJ (or anywhere else in the US).
Finally, if you think that teachers have it so good, then why don't you become one? There are now alternative certification programs that will get you licensed quickly (if you have a college degree). You could be living the sweet life in no time. I think you will find that if you really want to do a good job at teaching and want to help children learn, the compensation is tremendously inadequate for the time and effort expended.

Answer 3

I'm right there with you. I think they are fairly compensated. I have friends who are teachers. We all went to college, we all have advanced degrees in our respective fields. The teachers make more money than half of our friends who all have traditional desk jobs in corporate america. We don't get anything near the vacation or the benefits they do either. I leave for work in the mornings and my teacher friend is just getting up, I get home in the evening and he has been home for 3 hours. Again this all depends on location urban/rural and the type of school private/public. My experience is with an urban public school in Ohio. Ohio requires all teachers to obtain or work towards a master degree so the high pay is pretty much accross the board. Who wouldn't want to make $60k plus a year with great benefits, almost 4 months off and shorter hours. Oh and the fact that they don't pay into social security, they have their own retirement fund and can retire after 25 years of service is they want and get the average of their 3 hightest paid years as their pension.

I agree that theirs is a truly important job. They probably don't get the respect they deserve but from my experience they get paid what they are worth.

Answer 4

I agree 100% with Ralfcoder! Until you've been in a classroom, you have no clue how hard your child's teacher works. On average, a teacher works 12 hours a day, planning, preparing and evaluating. Where do you live that teachers get 3 months off in the summer? Usually the break is 8 - 9 weeks, and during this time we have to attend classes to keep up with technology and current methods. We don't get an hour for lunch, we don't get to go to the bathroom when we need to, we don't even get the support from parents we deserve. You think teachers are well paid? Great! Join us and enjoy the good life.

Answer 5

Wow you got a lot of comments from this question! I am single and make enough to have a decent home, wear decent clothes, eat out every now and then and go on vacations. However I still have to get help from my parents at times. If I had children I would probably be at povertly level. I have a Master's degree and am working on a higher one ( I have had to pay for each of these classes and my state requires a Masters). Yes, I think we're underpaid. Once you get in the field and you see how hard it is you will understand. The energy level it takes to teach elementary is like no other job I can think of. However I am very happy teaching and I knew going into it that I'd be underpaid so Ive accepted it.

Answer 6

I am not teaching yet, but from what I know about the field-teachers do alot of work both in and out of the classroom-days,nights,weekends....
teachers have to be certified or licensed and stay up with the new content, new laws, lots of paperwork, meetings....
work with students, their families, other teachers, the school districts, testing....
What is fair for working full-time and overtime, having to have at least a 4-year degree and certification or license?
Are you taking into account the cost of living, too?
Also are you including college lecturers such as part-time instructors, teaching assistants?
I do not believe "teachers" are paid enough with or without benefits for the requirements of the profession.
Teachers in private and charter schools are paid even less than public school teachers.
Teachers are educated professionals-the pay should go with that.

Answer 7

All in all I believe that I make a fair wage. One thing that has had me a little unsettled lately is the threat of violence in a school. When you consider that I feel that if we were police or paramedics we would be respected more and people would not hesitate to support a raise.
Guns have been brought to my school. A teacher was shot at my school. Knives are brought probably more often than we know. Some days I wonder why I do not have a bulletproof vest included in my contract!
But I still love my job and I would protect any one of my students any way that I could. And even with what I said... our school is a good one. It is in a suburb and has mostly good kids. It is just the one that is truly angry that you have to watch out for.

Answer 8

In Texas, our summer vacation is only 7 weeks, and during that time we must attend professional development classes and workshops that are required by our state. You must also remember that although you ASSUME that we are being paid for the summer - we're not! Our paychecks are being divided up into 12 months, but our salary is just for 10 months work. We have daily/hourly pay scales, too. We don't have PAID medical, dental, etc. It is deducted from our paychecks if we aren't on another family member's insurance program. Did you also consider all the supplies that we have to buy and make that aren't reimbursed to us by anyone? Perhaps in the state that you reside, your teachers have benefits that are free to them through their district and our beginning salary for my Houston area school district (third largest in the state) ISN'T $40K! I've been teaching over 20 years and barely make that! We also don't have social security benefits. We have our retirement put into a Teacher Retirement System, and any SS benefits that we are entitled to from jobs prior to going into education (high school employment, college jobs, etc) cannot be claimed by me at any time. In some states, teachers are considered state employees and are entitled to all the perks (benefits, retirement funds, etc) that other state employees receive. But that is not necessarily the norm throughout the nation.

Answer 9

I don't think anyone claims that teachers don't get paid enough to get by, it's more an argument of considering how important their job is. After all, they do teach our children. I don't really think they should be paid more though, because they should be teaching because they love to teach, not for the money. At the same time though, there isn't much room for growth for a teacher. They start out okay, but their pay never goes up very much. My dad had to quit teaching and go into administration because he wasn't making enough to support our family. Its a tough question to answer. I don't think there is a right answer.

Answer 10

40k to start is pretty good - teachers in my area start as low as 26K

Teachers dont have the summers "off" - the don't get paid for it there for it is not a vacation. So the way you were figuring it was right - that would be 40k for 9 months work. They do work tons and tons of over time though.

It depends. In my state they are very under paid. In some states they do alright.