No one pursues a career in education thinking they're going to make a hedge fund manager's salary. As recent teacher protests across the country attest, the average teacher's pay can be paltry compared to the level of work they put in. To illustrate just how dramatically teacher salaries can vary across the country, the personal finance site Howmuch.net combed through teacher salary figures listed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, then compiled three maps.
With the average national teacher salary hovering around $50,000, it's clear there's a great disparity at play. Teachers in California and New York make a killing compared to those in more fiscally conservative states like West Virginia and Arizona -- two places where teacher walkouts have recently made national headlines.
After parsing through the BLS data, Howmuch determined the 10 best states for teacher salaries:
1. New York: $81,613
2. Alaska: $80,627
3. Connecticut: $78,567
4. California: $76,523
5. Massachusetts: $75,720
6. New Jersey: $72,460
7. Oregon: $69,643
8. Virginia: $68,707
9. Maryland: $67,173
10. Rhode Island: $67,050
If you're interested in seeing the entire national makeup reflected in elementary, middle and high school teacher salaries, see the maps below:
Here's the situation for middle school teachers:
And high school teachers:
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