Teachers must work 24 years on average to earn $75,000. It's faster in APS.

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By Maureen Downey

Dec 3, 2014

UPDATE: On Friday, the National Council on Teacher Quality issued a correction to its rankings due to a mistake in its cost-of- living calculations. The correction affects the cost of living-adjusted rankings slightly — Atlanta moves from 3rd to 4th and the other metro districts move down a bit. Here is a link to the corrected report.

A report released today by the National Council on Teacher Quality examines how many years teachers have to work before they earn an annual salary of $75,000.

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Among large Georgia districts, the range is 12 years for teachers in the Atlanta system to 22 years in DeKalb. Most districts are closer to DeKalb than APS.

In reviewing mostly large school districts, the study “Smart Money” found it takes teachers 24 years on average to get to $75,000. The study found the length of time varied throughout the country.

For large Georgia districts, the study found:

In Atlanta, it takes teachers 12 years to reach $75,000, while teachers in Boston can reach that mark in as few as seven. Adjusting for the cost of living, Atlanta teachers end up near the top of the list on earnings after a 30-year career. Of the 125 district ranks on the list, Atlanta is fourth.
In Cobb County, it takes teachers 20 years to reach $75,000. Of the 125 district ranks on the list, Cobb County is 15th.
In DeKalb County, it takes teachers 22 years to reach $75,000. Of the 125 district ranks on the list, DeKalb is 29th
In Fulton County, it takes teachers 20 years to reach $75,000. Of the 125 district ranks on the list, Fulton is 17th.
In Gwinnett County, it takes teachers 21 years to reach $75,000. Of the 125 district ranks on our list, Gwinnett is 20th.

Among other findings in the study:

The maximum salary a teacher can earn over a 30-year career ranges significantly, from $52,325 in Oklahoma City to $106,540 in the District of Columbia.
After adjusting for cost of living in these communities, the picture changes dramatically. The maximum pay in New York City, while higher than most districts in nominal dollars, has the buying power of $23,200 in adjusted dollars; Columbus (OH) offers the highest "bang for the buck: at $100,400 in adjusted dollars.
On average it takes teachers 24 years to reach their maximum pay; this time frame is much longer than for other professions. The speed of income growth has a dramatic impact on how much a teacher will take home over the course of a career, which is a little-considered feature of teachers' pay packages that accounts for tremendous disparities in teachers' overall earnings. The range of time it takes to reach $75,000, roughly the average maximum salary, ranges from seven years in Boston to over 30 years in Wichita.
This variation in the growth of annual earnings matters almost as much as a teacher's starting and ending pay. Compare, for example, the salary schedules for Milwaukee and Rochester. The maximum pay for Milwaukee teachers is $78,143, which at first blush compares poorly with the maximum pay in Rochester, an impressive $120,582. However, it takes a teacher in Milwaukee 15 years to reach the maximum salary, while in Rochester, it takes 48 years. A Rochester teacher who started teaching at age 22 would be 70 years old before qualifying for that generous salary. Since teachers are more likely to work 30 years than 48, the Milwaukee salary turns out to be more competitive.
The study calls for a reconsideration of how teachers are paid, concluding, "It is time for school districts to rethink compensation systems. Attention to starting and ending salaries is not enough; the path teachers must take to receive higher salaries matters almost as much. As more districts move away from salary schedules based primarily on experience and advanced degrees, districts offering traditional salary schedules with no way to accelerate earnings may be losing a competitive edge. Built-in step increases may feel like a plus, but schedules that reach peak salaries earlier allow teachers to earn a professional salary early in their career and consequently more compensation overall."

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