Average Texas teacher pay is much higher than the average salary earned in Texas

Pratt on TexasAccording to Rasmussen College, using federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers, the average salary in Texas is $32, 880.

The same report includes this great reminder: “It may appear that New York and California have the highest average salaries for your career — but once you factor in the cost of living, the picture quickly changes.”

According to the Texas Education Agency minimum salary schedule for this year, a teacher in Texas with ten years of credited experience earns a minimum, not an average but a minimum, of $38,080 per year. That is more than five thousand per year more than the average salary in the state of Texas.

A Texas teacher with fifteen years credited experience must be paid a minimum of $42,310 which is $9,430 more than the average salary earned by Texans.

teachers here are being paid a whopping fifty-four percent more than the average salary earned by other Texans

Those figures are the state minimum for teachers. Teachingdegree.org reports the annual mean wage in Texas for elementary school teachers as being over $50,000. (Here’s another source which shows the average salary for all Texas teachers is $48,819.)

You have likely heard that teachers in Oklahoma and other places are on strike demanding more money. In Texas media outlets are joining the fray trying to tell you that teachers in Texas are grossly underpaid.

KJTV in Lubbock ran a story with the Lubbock Cooper ISD chief claiming wrongly that Texas teacher salaries have “taken a hit” from the Legislature. The story attempts to make it appear that Texas teachers are earning $6,300 per year below what they should be paid.

The fact is that if you take the reported mean salary of Texas elementary teachers, teachers here are being paid a whopping fifty-four percent more than the average salary earned by other Texans, who by the way through property and other taxes, pay those teacher salaries.

 

 

Median Household Income in the United States[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]

The 2015 median total household income in Texas, not individual salaries but total household income, was $56,473 according to the Federal Government.

Share Pratt on Texas

Comments

  1. How many of those compared are required to have a bachelor’s degree? I challenge you to look at the average salary of those jobs that require a degree as a minimum requirement and you will see a much greater disparity. Of course, if you really don’t care about the truth and are trying to say Texas teachers are paid better than most, you fudge the numbers intentionally…

    • Pratt on Texas says

      James, just self-satisfy and tell yourself I don’t want the truth. It seems it is the “truth” as you want to see that you want from me, not anything that questions your orthodoxy. You could have provided counter information as a Facebook user did and we could discuss the value of that and how it relates to the point but instead, it’s all emotion. Sad.

  2. Mr. Pratt, The data you are using is for 5A schools. My daughter is an elementary school teacher with a Bachelors degree and a $32,000 per year salary and she can’t even afford to live alone. She’s a frugal person and she’s very responsible. She works for a Title 1 school and gets nothing to help with classroom supplies, so she spends quite a chunk out of her own paycheck to make it work. This is true for a lot of teachers. The health insurance they offer is so expensive she can’t afford to have it so she is currently uninsured. Apparently you haven’t looked at the soaring cost of housing in Texas (I’m a Realtor so I’m all too familiar), or the price of groceries, gasoline, utilities, basic necessities like clothes, and healthcare. A salary of $32,000 ends up being like $23,000 after income tax, and even less after sales tax and all other taxes. This is what we expect of someone with a Bachelor’s degree and certification who works even late nights and on weekends just to stay caught up with the lesson plans and grading and reports? I’d venture to say you have never been a school teacher and probably don’t personally know one. James is right. Your hypothesis is daft at best.

Speak Your Mind

*

© Pratt on Texas / Perstruo Texas, Inc.