Starting Pay ≤ My Pay < Top Pay
December 4, 2013 pm31 11:18 pm
That little inequality would be true in any district. But what would the numbers be?
I guess you should know that this is my 17th year. I have a Masters. And I’ve collected a bunch of additional credits, but no additional degrees. Probably if we added up the advanced credits, it would be around 30, but I padded that with some credit by examination a few years ago, so in NYC I am closer to 50. Not that those credits matter elsewhere. You should also know that I am on sabbatical this year, so I am not drawing full pay. But for this exercise, let’s pretend I am.
The list includes all the towns and cities in Westchester and Nassau that border NYC, and I’ve thrown in the NYC rates from September 1997, when I started, to boot.
| District | Starting Teacher | jd2718 | Top Teacher | (deg, years) |
| NYC 1997 | $28,749 | $28,749 | $60,000 | MA+30, 23 yrs |
| NYC 2013 | $45,530 | $85,426 | $100,049 | MA+30, 23 yrs |
| Yonkers 2010 | $57,772 | $118,709 | $131,016 | PhD, 30 yrs |
| Mt Vernon 2009 | $51,540 | $109,616 | $122,275 | PhD, 20 yrs |
| Pelham 2012 | $52,931 | $119,308 | $137,433 | PhD, 25 yrs |
| New Rochelle 2013 | $54,969 | $119,593 | $131,839 | MA+90 or PhD, 20 yrs |
| Great Neck 2013 | $56,829 | $119,270 | $136,856 | PhD, 25 yrs |
| New Hyde Pk – Garden City 2012 | $53,620 | $109,140 | $119,702 | PhD, 26 yrs |
| Floral Park- Bellerose 2011 | $56,088 | $105,768 | $123,616 | PhD, 25 yrs |
| Elmont 2012 | $52,076 | $106,275 | $119,328 | PhD, 22 yrs |
| Valley Stream 2010 | $55,574 | $112,362 | $123,510 | PhD, 26 yrs |
| Lawrence 2011 | $51,432 | $113,989 | $130,072 | MA+90 or PhD, 30 yrs |
2 Comments
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JD2718 
The concept of a huge maximum salary needs a closer exam. What are the percentages of teaching staff on the very top rung ( not counting/counting seniority)? I don’t think that a huge number of credits makes any difference in teaching kids, and should not be some stupid carrot or advertising point. A teacher who want to learn more will likely take more from any class than a raise chaser. 60 credits beyond a BA/BS is way more than enough.
There was a time in Yonkers when only 3% of the workforce was on ‘maximum’. at that time in NYC the number was around 50%.
The bigger issue is the time it takes to maximum salary. It used to be sixteen years, then cut to eight. Now back up again, and beyond. If schools want to attract and keep staff, they have to compete salary wise. That doesn’t mean dangling a ‘maybe it’s there, maybe it’s not’ pension after years of taking a below market salary. It means a salary payable NOW, so that a home can be secured, and a decent life lived.
Detroit has taught the entire teaching force a lesson–don’t count on the future.
Agreed. I included the top because I knew readers would want it. I care more about year 1, 5, 10, and me.
I’d like to see the time to max greatly reduced. I thought NYC would be among the worst – ironic – that’s the only place it seems typical.