<p>Mini…I teach on the North Shore of Long Island (Great Neck) and I can assure you that there are no school districts that pay $125K a year to a step 1 teacher without a masters. Perhaps she was speaking about some of her experienced colleagues who have reached the top pay scale (20 years + experience, PHD or masters plus 30 credits.)</p>
<p>If a starting teacher gets $125K…are you implying that experienced teachers are at the $200K mark? It’s just not true.</p>
<p>Since the dollar has fallen!!!</p>
<p>
No - it’s thanks to the vast majority of us hard-working individuals paying into this system. Give credit to where it’s due and don’t minimize the contributions of those law-abiding legal citizens of all races paying large amounts into the fund.</p>
<p>At least some of the uncollected contributions by illegals, which are likely to be minimal due to lower wages, will be offset by the huge nimbers of illegals who pay no income taxes whatsoever due to working for cash only.</p>
<p>"If a starting teacher gets $125K…are you implying that experienced teachers are at the $200K mark? It’s just not true.</p>
<p>I can only tell you what she says she earned. She now has her masters (paid for by the school district.) I have no idea what they top out at. </p>
<p>She lives in Manhattan, and reverse commutes.</p>
<p>“No - it’s thanks to the vast majority of us hard-working individuals paying into this system. Give credit to where it’s due and don’t minimize the contributions of those law-abiding legal citizens of all races paying large amounts into the fund.”</p>
<p>The system would be bankrupt already if not for the contributions of those who never collect (and over a very long period of time - it is only two years ago that the median life expectancy of an African-American male even reached the age where they would be eligible to collect; but they’ve been paying in for 70+ years.)</p>
<p>Department of Labor has excellent stats on undocumented migrants. Almost 80% of those employed pay into Social Security. My state has a large (though shrinking) number of migrant agricultural workers (they may be undocumented, but many have settled out, bought homes, started businesses, and are increasingly sending their kids to college). The industries are so heavily regulated, that payment is in the high 90% range (they pay into workers comp as well, though many are afraid to collect).</p>
<p>Mini–I’m willing to guess that she’s doing extensive tutoring and/or other side and summer jobs. Yeah, teachers are better paid than they used to be, but that number needs a validity check.</p>
<p>I also find it unbelievable that teachers anywhere except maybe in Dubai, start at 125k - perhaps at the highest step, they earn this. If this were the case there wouldn’t be any shortages. It is irrelevant what subject a teacher teaches - teacher’s unions have made certain of that - each step for all teachers is well defined.</p>
<p>By the way, they don’t start at that salary even in the most prestigious universities in the world.</p>
<p>Don’t most school districts publish their salary scale on their website? I know every place around here does. Those well under the state average might not (plus might not have updated the web page in years due to no funding) but most competitive districts put it right out there. Give us the name of the school district and someone can find out…Public employees’s salary is public information.
(For the record, mine is miserable…)</p>
<p>You can get an idea about salaries by finding a school district, and reading the BOE minutes. Here is an example of Step 1 pay in a “good” school district in New Jersey. I am taking out names of the teachers and district:</p>
<p>“BE IT RESOLVED, upon recommendation of the Superintendent, to approve {removed name} for the position of District Guidance Counselor for the 2008-2009 school year, ({removed name} will be on an unpaid maternity leave of absence) at a salary of $50,903, Column C, Step 1 on the Teachers’ Salary Guide, subject to the negotiated contract.”</p>
<p>So, in this district, it looks like a step 1 teacher starts at just under 51,000.</p>
<p>
I disagree that they have excellent stats. There are huge numbers of illegals who are outside of these stats. They’re off the books completely and no one knows for sure how many there are. I see them around me all the time working for cash, paying no income or SS/Medicare taxes at all. Admittedly, I don’t know the percentage of illegals working for cash versus illegals working for companies that deduct for SS but I don’t think the dept of labor knows either.</p>
<p>If you estimate the number of undocumented illegals paying income/SS taxes who don’t end up receiving benefits (I suspect some do) as a percentage of the total workforce paying into it and then consider the amount the average illegal is paying on their generally not high wage versus the general population, I doubt that they’re a highly significant factor in the coffers of SS.</p>
<p>But this digresses from the OP’s topic.</p>
<p>I have been teaching for 30 years in NY state. I started at $8600 a year in 1978. I now earn almost $70,000. I have a masters degree and 45 hours beyond that. My husband is also a teacher who makes the same as I. This puts us in a high income range. However we have only recently been earning this much. We will have a great pension. However, now we basically live paycheck to paycheck and are 2/3 of the way of paying for 3 kids through college with no loans for us. Our middle child is at a high cost LAC that we would not be able to afford if she wasn’t in the middle (2 in college the whole way through) Lots of institutional grant money. I feel middle class, but I hate to think of how people making less than us do it. : (</p>
<p>I found the following info on the web regarding teacher’s salaries for Great Neck, Long Island:</p>
<p>Average class: size 10.3
Average teacher salary: $87,444
Annual teacher turnover rate: 6.1%
Teachers with permanent certification: 88%
Teachers with provisional status: 10.3%
Minority teachers: 4.5%
Median years experience teaching: 15
Teachers with master’s degree plus 30 hours or doctorate: 58.6% </p>
<p>Number of district employees making > $100,000 a year: 31 </p>
<p>Superintendent of Schools $307,765 Deputy Superintendent $239,650
Assistant Superintendent $205,450 High School Principal $158,189
High School Principal $158,189 Middle School Principal $151,346
Elementary Principal $148,279 Elementary Principal $148,279
Elementary Principal $148,279 Dir Public Info & Adult Ed $147,239
Dir Research&Spcl Svcs $147,239 Elementary Principal $147,179
Director of Technology $143,066 Middle School Asst Principal $136,591
High School Asst Principal $136,591 Middle School Principal $133,800
Elementary Principal $133,500 Director Pupil Personnel $132,219
High School Asst Principal $131,641 Middle School Asst Principal $125,591
Elementary Asst Principal $125,433 Elementary Asst Principal $124,333
High School Asst Principal $123,941 Elementary Asst Principal $123,883
High School Asst Principal $123,391 Business Administrator $119,772
Elementary Asst Principal $119,683 High School Asst Principal $118,991
Asst Director Pupil Person. $114,530 Asst Director Adult Education $112,806
Assistant Business Manager $104,860 </p>
<ul>
<li>- includes salary + bonuses </li>
</ul>
<p>Great Neck is one of the top districts on Long Island (North Shore)…their salaries are among the top as well.</p>
<p>Mini, take what your niece has told you with a grain of salt…there is definitley more to her story. The “average” teacher’s salary on the chart above ($87,444) reflects a teacher with about 15 years of teaching and Master’s plus 30.</p>