Places that still pay well relative to their cost of living? I'm from a city in Texas where new teachers start off at $50,000/year. Texas doesn't have income tax and has a pretty low cost of living. Are there other states that have a good set up for teachers like this? Places that I've looked at so far have been literally $10,000 less in salary in more expensive states. Thanks!
In my district you will start between $52-55K depending on if you come in with a BA or MA. A quality suburb will pay even more, but this is IL and the cost of living is high. Plus, our government is incompetent on a local and state level.
In Pennsylvania, average teacher salary: $64,991. Pennsylvania has been the 10th-highest paying state for teachers for three years running. According to the EPI report, teachers in the state earn 87.1% of the salary that other college graduates do, the 7th best in the nation.
Average salary is usually quite different from new teacher salary. The largest district in Nevada pays a flat $40k for new teachers. It's kind of hard to get raises right now, although that might change in the future. The cost of living is not as high as you might expect for a big city.
https://edexcellence.net/publications/how-strong-are-us-teacher-unions.html I'm linking you to this website which was research completed about the power of teacher's unions. Not surprisingly -- and directly tied to your question-- the states with more powerful unions are more likely than not to have a) better pay, b) benefits, c) job security and d) over all better working environment. However, the down side being, getting a job in these places can be very difficult! But check it out.
I'm from Pennsylvania. The district I grew up starts teachers at around 42k and a neighboring district is only 37k. The pay in the state VARIES widely.
I second this! I work on California and pay varies by region widely. Cost of living varies widely also. Making 48k starting in San Jose or San Fransisco is very different from 48 k starting in the central valley in like Fresno or Sacramento. 48 in the valley = livable wage. 48k in San Jose or San Fransisco = bellow poverty line. Best to look by city at cost of living vs wage for some states.
That link lists Hawaii as number one and I've heard absolutely awful things about the salary vs. COL there...teachers living in cars and things like that. I'm in CO and we seem to get a lot of transplants from TX...don't do it! The salary is really bad in comparison to COL. A first year teacher would make about 36-38K in the urban areas and about 30-32K in the rural areas. I pay over $1300 per month for a small 1 bedroom apartment way, way out in the suburbs, and people just moving in pay a lot more than I do. I'm originally from OH and I think the salary for COL is pretty great there, although as my CO friends love to point out, "Yeah, but then you have to live in OH . " However, as a pp pointed out, it's hard to get a teaching job there whereas the market is a lot more open in CO. The better the conditions are, the harder it is to get a job in that location.
My area in Kentucky has a low cost of living. My DH and I work in separate districts, and we make almost identical salaries. I'm not sure of starting salary. I'm going to start year 25 in August. I'm approximately $55,000. That's with a MA. We live comfortably. I lived by myself for a long tome. Bought a house by myself. Very doable here. My area, however, is not for everybody. Small, rural towns are not everyone's cup of tea. Just about 50 miles away, cost of living rises sharply, but salary doesn't go up quite as much. One of my coworkers left our district for a job about 125 miles away. His salary is close to $80,000, but it costs way more to live there, too.
And other districts in the same state pay someone with two decades plus experience 51k. It varies wildly. Plus, many districts start teachers off at a decent salary but only go up 200-500 a year as you gain more experience.
In my district in Ohio (a suburb just outside of Columbus) a first year teacher with a bachelor's makes about $43K, which was enough for me to live comfortably in a fairly nice area, although I don't have kids. The most experienced teachers in my district, with master's degrees, make six figures.
Ohio is a great place to live! I lived many other places when my husband was in the Air Force and we were so glad to move back here. But you're right, it is hard to get a job here - a lot of great universities in this state.
While Utah isn't quite run screaming here yet, it's pretty good and getting better with the tech boom and the recent district wars. The CoL here is very nice, so districts competing for teachers is pretty fun. We still lose people to Wyoming, but the situation is still quite decent.