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Comment by yardie | Hacker News Reader

If they are making that there is no way it's just for teaching. I assume they have some administrative/leadership work involved. And probably a few degrees as well.

When I was in school my freshly minted Calculus teacher was earning $60k with her MS Math. My English teacher, $120k, was also the English curriculum coordinator and had a PhD.Ed.

And experience counts. The green, math teacher could barely keep a bunch of pubescent teenagers in their seats. Some of the exchanges were borderline sexual harrassment. The English teacher knew how to command a classroom.

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In San Diego teacher's salaries are set according to a schedule.

Fresh out of college you start at 40k and can increase to 90k after 15 years. But you can increase by doing clubs or other activities + advanced degreees.

The downside is if you are a superstar teacher straight out of college you still make 40k. Similarly if you are a crappy teacher after 15 years you still make 90k

Thanks unions!

First year, superstar teachers (which I truly believe are unicorns) have options to make more money. They can get advanced degrees or work in poor performing schools with federal funding. The former takes time and the later no one honestly wants to do. I don't think even superstar teachers can do it year after year.

As far as pay. Like most jobs the first few years are low with a steep curve. Then it tapers off to COL increases once you've put in many years. This can be said of any job. Union and nonunion.

They were more of a leadership role as well. 8th grade english teach probably had more than 20 yrs as a teacher, he was nearing retirement age (~60) and if memory serves me right he was the cluster leader. The high school history teacher was probably doing admin/leadership work, she eventually got her phd and became the vice principal.

The area was pretty cheap too. Looking up citydata (2013), median household income: $50k, Median income per capita: $27k. For comparison in the same year SF was $77k and $52k respectively.

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