What Does A Teacher Earn Per Hour?
When someone ask me how much I make as a
teacher, I always tell them my annual salary. And then
I undoubtedly get..."I make more than that!" But what
if I broke it down into hourly pay? Would that seem
like a decent amount? Would they still make more than
me? Let us find out.
I will not look at a first year high
school salary, but rather the average teacher salary in my
district located in Pennsylvania. The salary is
roughly $52,000 a year. Now many people would say that
is a nice amount but nothing that will have you living on
easy street. But what exactly is it per hour?
Have you ever heard a teacher say how much they make per
hour? Absolutely not. Because if they did,
people wouldn't fight for teachers' raises as much as they
do.
Back to my district, how much is $52,000
a year in hourly terms? Well I am contracted as a
teacher to work 7.5 hours per day. Now that day
consists of a 30 minute non-interrupted lunch. So
actually, we only work 7 hours a day. At my district,
we are contracted for 190 work days a year. (The
longest in the entire country unfortunately)
So
doing some basic math, we divide $52,000 by 1330 hours and
come up with $39.10 an hour.
Now back to the guy that always tells me
how he makes more than I do. Does he? No, you
see he has to work 40 hours a week and put in another 8 of
overtime to get to that point. So even though he makes
a little more than me, I will take my 1330 hour work year to
his 2496 hour work year. That is right, us teachers
get about 1166 extra hours off. If we want or need
more money, we can take a second job.
But wait a minute...what happens to the
per hour pay when we throw in benefits. These extras
run about $12,000 a work per year. So now we are
dividing $64,000 per year by 1330 hours to get a hourly wage
of $48.12. Now find me a job that pays that an hour?
Not many of them out there. Hope this helps you
understand the true pay of education. And yes I am a
teacher...a math teacher. :)
|
