Teacher Pay from far away: Detroit
[Note: Reader K.A. points out that there are four more steps, bringing top salary over $70k. Corrected scale to be posted soon. -jd, 08/30/09]
Detroit. The Motor City. Devastated when auto moved away. Once almost 2 million people lived there. Now? 900,000.
By the way, teachers can earn a few hundred bucks for visiting the River Rouge complex this summer. I’ll blog about that, soon.
Anyhow, teachers in Detroit have it hard. There were layoffs in October, though the DFT got some of them rolled back in November. There is a threatened state takeover. At least they work a short year (174 days)
What do teachers in Detroit make? Much less than New York teachers. Pay starts at $39,647 and maxes at $56,017. Only 6 steps, and only 3 differentials
Full scale, beneath the fold:
2008-2009 Salary Schedule 10 months (39 weeks)
STEP |
(1) Bachelors |
(2) Masters |
(4) Masters+30 |
(5) Earned Doctorate |
1 |
39,647 |
41,537 |
41,837 |
42,137 |
2 |
40,674 |
45,158 |
45,458 |
45,758 |
3 |
42,774 |
47,754 |
48,054 |
48,354 |
4 |
44,810 |
50,286 |
50,586 |
50,886 |
5 |
46,909 |
52,812 |
53,112 |
53,412 |
6 |
49,013 |
55,417 |
55,717 |
56,017 |
Source: Detroit Federation of Teachers website.
Click here to see the NYC teacher pay scale.
Click here to see an assortment of pay scales from New York City’s suburbs, and from far away.
Share links, or e-mail me, and I will post more salary schedules. The one’s have posted? Most I stumbled on; now two readers have sent them in, a commenter linked to some recent data, and I found a paper copy of this one. Send more, I’ll post more (and more people will send more, and more people will read them, and more people ….)
JD2718 
At least, depending on the individual’s risk tolerance, housing is inexpensive. Homes in Detroit are listed for (literally) $1, with homes in relatively safe neighborhoods available for the amount of their back taxes (often under $20,000). Reminds me of Pittsburgh during the late 1980s. Graduate students were able to purchase homes from the city for back taxes or the bank for whatever the bank could get and cover the mortgage out of their stipends. Of course, selling them at the end of their 6-8 years of master/doctoral work proved challenging in several (but certainly not a majority) of cases.
Detroit is home to quite a bit of “urban prairie” – it just feels like a place that people want to leave… Maybe that’s not fair, but it certainly doesn’t make $1 houses very tempting.
The payscale in this article is incomplete. The pay scale maxes out at 72,816 and has 10 steps for Bachelors and Masters degrees. For a Masters +30 and an Earned Doctorate salary maxes at 73,216 and 73,516. Even though a link to the AFT website was provided to view the payscale,(the link is at the very bottom of the page), people who read this article are given false information. Although we currently make less than surrounding school districts, Statements that the DFT payscale stops at step 6 and maxes at 56,017 are incorrect.
K.A.
thank you. I’ve put a note up top, and will update the scale when I have a chance.
Is there a new chart for 09-10?
Jonathan
Your welcome. No, the new pay scale for the 2009-2010 contract year has not been posted yet. Will be sure to let you know.
K.A.