Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

2020 Teacher Salaries

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by

James A. Bacon
in

by John Butcher

It’s Spring and the data in the lower half of the 2020 Superintendent’s Annual Report have sprouted.

Table 19 reports on salaries in some detail. As well, it provides an overview report of division average salaries of “All Instructional Positions” (classroom teachers, guidance counselors, librarians, technology instructors, principals, and assistant principals). Here is a summary of those summary data:

The gold bar is Richmond. The red bars are the peer cities, from the left Hampton, Newport News, and Norfolk. The blue bar is Northumberland, which is just a few dollars above the division average. The green bar is Lynchburg (with a hat tip to James Weigand).

Here is a list of the eight Big Spenders, along with the Richmond peers and two averages. The right hand column is the difference from the division average.

Falls Church leads the pack with an average salary 54.4% above the division average.

The “Teacher Average” is the average salary over all instructional personnel, while the “Division Average” is the average of the division averages. The former number is much larger, primarily because of the higher salaries and larger numbers of personnel in those large NoVa divisions. Notably: Fairfax has 16,363.92 positions (I’d like to meet that 0.92 person) at a $79,554 average.

Finally, here are Richmond and the suburbs.

This column is republished with permission from Cranky’s Blog.

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17 responses to “2020 Teacher Salaries”

  1. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    I assume the bars at the extreme of the histogram are NOVA.

  2. CJBova Avatar
    CJBova

    Always comes out too late for most public discussion on local budgets.

  3. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    It is going to be harder for Richmond to claim that its teacher salaries make it less competitive with the surrounding counties.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Salaries are the least of the problems at RPS.

  4. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Median might be a more informative measure than average but surprised there is no carping………. yet…..!!!

    I’d also be curious to know the figure for private schools.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Some higher, some lower than public schools. Many have lower salaries but the teacher’s kids attend or get a big break. The benefits are seldom comparable to public.

  5. tmtfairfax Avatar
    tmtfairfax

    One of Fairfax County’s problems is that it has a supplemental pension plan that pays teachers who retire before Social Security eligibility what they would receive in SS had they retired when they were eligible for SS. But the Plan, which is unique to FCPS in Metro Washington, does not end when the former teacher reaches SS eligibility. It continues for life.

    So this pension plan pushes FCPS’ total per-teacher costs quite high vis a vis other school systems, but measurably lower with respect to per-teacher salary comparisons.

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      Good point: salary vs total compensation.

    2. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I don’t know the details for Fairfax but locally ,teachers that retire after 30 years but before they are 65 – receive more pension up front that then reduces once SS kicks in – basically so that it ends up a consistent annual total. I wonder how James is done.

  6. J A Jackson Avatar
    J A Jackson

    Teaching isn’t respected as it should. Until teachers are treated like the professionals that they are, we will continue to see this pathetic salary. I am a public school teacher that has taught in Title I schools my entire career. I have a masters degree with 17 years experience and I haven’t cracked 60K yet. I am also still paying my student loans!

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Welcome to BR and I hope you continue to share your real-world perspective about teaching and public education.

    2. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
      James Wyatt Whitehead

      Retired school teacher. Know how you feel. 4 weeks, 1,500 bucks and you can have a CDL A starting at 60K. In five years you could break 100K. Look out for numero uno. No one else will.

  7. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    When my wife retired from Chesterfield in 2008, with 30+ years in the classroom, she was making more than that present Chesterfield figure. Looks like it has been flat at best over the decade, with inflation eroding the value. Salaries send signals. In this case, “choose another profession.”

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Not a dig at your wife. My sister-in-law and several cousins were teachers in K-12, but we reap what we sow and we’re sowing less and less. Maybe we should water too?

      1. Stephen Haner Avatar
        Stephen Haner

        Today, with her skillset and W&M degree, she wouldn’t go into teaching. But 50 years ago quite a few currents steered her in that direction. When she combined her VRS retirement with a private school salary, she finally made a decent wage.

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Sis was LA schools at one of the disadvantged schools. She did retire with more than 1 full year of PTO on the books. I envied her that.

  8. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Replay those numbers taking cost of living into account and I think you’ll see a different picture

    Salary.com has a cost of living index for cities in Virginia. NoVa is consistently 155% of the Virginia average while Richmond is 94% and Hampton is 98%.

    Using the “division average” of $54,508 means NoVa school employees should average $84,487, Richmond area employees should average $51,237 and Hampton employees should average $53,153.

    By this measure NoVa is a bit underpaid (other than in Falls Church), Richmond is overpaid and Hampton is about right.

    https://www.salary.com/research/cost-of-living/va

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