why do college teachers get pay more than HS/MS/ES teachers?

Question

and so on.. college teachers get paid more than HS teachers, HS teachers get paid more than MD teachers, MD teachers get paid more than ES teachers.. why? shouldn't it be evqual? all work as hard, they all have degrees.. I had a teacher who had lots of PhDs she had all this degrees and was teaching a HS class and got paid less..tell me what you think.

I meant to say MS not MD..sorry about that..
High School/Middle School/Elementary School..college also applies to university etc.

Answer 1

I teach at a high school and university and get much more at the high school level. In fact, at our particular high school we have quite a few that did teach at the university level but found the pay to be less. The ones that make the most are the Depart Chairs. People just think that if you work at a university you'd get paid significantly more. Not true. In our state you are paid in a public school setting based on your highest degree earned plus years of service not grade level.

Answer 2

They do and they don't. Going rate has been the same $25 an hour it's been for years. The thing of it is you usually only get one course to teach and that amounts to $75 or $100 a week in pay for 20 weeks and then you have to hope you get a second semester.

College teachers usually have to teach at two or three colleges just to make $25K a year.

And the Salary generally doesn't go up unless you get a status like Department Head, Associate Professor, Professor and you meed a MAsters or PH D for that.

In a primary or secondary school you are generally employed full time and make a starting salary based upon the Union or City level, which can vary widely from $23K to $38 depending on state and city. One you get tenured and are there for a while you can make up to $60k in, say, Los Angeles, with just a BA and credential. After 25 or so years you get a nice pension in Los Angeles.

A friend of mine with a PHD from UCLA made $4,500 her first year teaching college.

Now, if you become a department head at a college you are generally there all day and all night. My college Department head had classes from 8 am until 11 pm. He also had to be there on weekends to supervise the editing room for student filmmakers.

With his PH D he was probably making $100K a year by the time he finished.

Once you are tentured in college you get reasearch grants. That is where the money is. You get $200,000 to study something for two years and you pay your assistants and pick up costs on things and give yourself a stinpind. That on top of your University Salary of $75K can put you over $100K a year.

I don't know where this "college teaching" requires a PH D comes from, a lot of my instructions just had a BA degree, but they are called LECTURERS and get the $25 an hour base pay.

Answer 3

Three reasons:

1)College teaching requires a ph.D.--except when a doctoral candidate teaches (which is practically the same thing.
2) At teh postsecondary level, most faculty are also involved in research--which primary/secondary teachers are not--and can't--mostly they lack the qualifications
3) Based on what I and others who teachat the college level see, the majority of schools--and thus teachers--at teh K-12 level are doing a lousy job. The students we get are not adequately prepared--because they've never been taught what they need to know.

Answer 4

College teachers teach more advanced subjects and are generally required to have a doctorate degree, which is not a requirement of elementary school teachers.

The concept is that you should have a degree that is higher than what you are teaching. Thus college profs have doctorates, high-school teachers have college degrees or masters, etc.

Answer 5

I am not sure about professors but all teachers in our schools, high, middle or elementary, follow the same salary schedule. The only difference in pay depends on your degree and years of service. High school teachers have the option to make more money if they take on extra duties such as coaching or club sponsors but that adds on many more hours to their day also.

I know that my local university requires professors to do extras such as publishing articles.

Answer 6

no....HS MS and ES should all get the same pay. i'm not sure what district you are refering too...but i have NEVER seen this situation where the pay is different. college professors get paid more because of their education level. and to get in good at a college, you get paid crap for a long while, and then when some prof. dies, you get in finally...they pay their dues.

this ph.d teacher working in HS...i doubt she did it for the money. all these levels have a different feel...you do what you like...and nobody gets in to any kind of education for the money. it's because they love it.