How To Increase Your Education Salary by $40K in 5 Years

By Anthony Lawson

Note: Not every teacher wants to go into administration. This article is for the ones who do.

When I first began my teaching career in 2008, I earned somewhere between $50,000-$55,000. I already had a master’s degree, so I was making a little more than many of my fellow colleagues whose salaries were based on a bachelor’s degree.  According to Payscale, the average education salary for elementary school teachers in the US is just slightly above $40,000. My starting salary was clearly above the norm, but in a large metropolitan area it still barely helped make ends meet. Furthermore, I started my teaching career during a time of drastic budget cuts that have still yet to rebound. The consequence of this time period is that we were not receiving step increases each year. In fact, I have many colleagues who are making less today in 2013 than they were in 2008. So here is the first step in how I started to increase my salary:

Step 1 – Change the county where you teach.

Why? Because when you change school districts, they put you on your appropriate pay step. Also, if you are lucky enough to go to a county that pays more, that appropriate pay step may be equivalent to two or three steps from the district you are leaving. I was now making about $58,000. I ended up only staying in this district for one year. So again, I switched counties and again, I got a raise based on the county paying more and another step increase. I was now making about $61,000. I stayed in this district for about a year and half before finally, I did what a lot of teachers do anf I left the classroom.

Step 2 – Leave the classroom for other positions.

Why? Promotions pay more money! I took a promotion and went back to the original county I was employed to work in the district office – again hired back on the appropriate step I should have been and getting a bump in pay based on my title. Now I was sitting pretty around $65,000 and had increased my salary by $15,000 in four and half  years. Furthermore, I was back in my original county where no step increases had occurred in the past 5 years, but rather only small cost of living increases. I was now making a lot more than all of my fellow colleagues that began their teaching career with me, but who chose to stay in the county. I stayed in this position for only about 6 months because it was not at all what I expected. I missed being around students and I really missed facilitating change at the building level. So this is where I took the final step:

Step 3 – Move into administration.

I took an assistant principal position in the highest paying district in the area that pays its administrators very well. This, in fact, was a $25,000 pay raise. They start their elementary assistant principals at $90,000. After four and a half years in the classroom and six months in a district office, I was now starting my sixth year in education making nearly $40,000 more than my original salary.

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Now, this article is not intended to be an easy 3-step guide to increase your salary as an educator. In fact, the intention is the exact opposite. We lose amazing teachers every year because we simply do not compensate them for the brilliant work they do on a daily basis. Some, yes, do choose to stay, but so many in fact leave the classroom because they simply cannot afford to stay. Some counties/districts have begun to implement a career ladder model that allows teachers to become mentor teachers, master teachers, and lead teachers in their buildings in order to compensate them commensurate to the level of high-performing administrators. This is intended to keep those great teachers in the classroom. More districts should follow this model if they truly want to improve student achievement.

[bctt tweet=”Teacher attrition is a systemic issue that many researchers have grappled with for decades.” username=”EducatorsRoom”]

I loved being in the classroom. But as a single male, I have to pay my bills alone. I had to do whatever it takes in order to make ends meet and still save money and have a social life. So what did I do? I left the classroom! It’s a sad, but true fact that happens every year across American schools. Teacher attrition is a systemic issue that many researchers have grappled with for decades. So district leaders should look at what makes teachers stay. Maybe it’s pay and maybe there are other reasons (see teacher retention). But if they think they can simply replace teachers year after year, then they are fooling themselves if they think the initiatives they pay millions of dollars for and ongoing professional development of teachers will have any impact on student achievement.

As I look to my future as an assistant principal and hopefully a principal, I will do whatever I can to keep my great teachers in the classroom. However, I have no control over their pay and even lesser control over districts that promote teachers leaving the classroom by providing higher compensation outside the classroom.

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