Phys Ed teacher pulls down $191,124, Superintendent $350,154.
By Bill Zettler
As Illinois citizens struggle with the severe economic downturn plaguing the state, Illinois public school employees enjoy another record year of salaries, fringe benefits and pensions. See “Top 100 Teachers Salaries” here.
Apparently there is no tax money for the barren shelves at food pantries or the lack of beds at homeless shelters or to extend unemployment benefits but there is enough tax money to pay for:
- A Phys Ed teacher $191,124 for a 9 month work year.
- 19 who made more over $1,000/day including 6 Phys Ed and three drama/music teachers.
- A Drivers Ed teacher who salary is $18,205/month to teach teenagers how to parallel park.
- Six teachers make more than the Governor’s $177,500.
- Top 100 Teachers average $17,603 per month salary.
And all of that is for a 36-week work-year.
These Top 100 Salaries Do Not Include Massive Amounts of Fringe Benefits.
Add about $48,000 each for state pension contribution (30% of salary) and at least $7,500/yr health insurance benefits. Then include 15 days sick leave payable at retirement if not used, 2 personal days/yr and up to $300,000 payment to the Teachers Retirement System by the local school district if they decide to take early retirement (see “Anatomy of a Teachers Contract” here).
And what is the value of a guaranteed $100,000 job (called “Tenure”) for as long as you want it?
If we add all these benefits to salaries in order to determine “total compensation” then the Total Compensation for every one of “Top 100 Teacher Salaries” (see here) exceeds $200,000/year. We could stock a lot of food pantries with that kind of cash.
Rather than pay $200/hr for teachers why not hire full-time consultants?
What was your favorite subject in school? Here’s a short list by subject I found interesting. Notice when we add in the cost of fringe benefits (not including tenure) to come up with a “Total Compensation” amount we have some teachers making $200/hr.
$100,000 Teacher Salaries By Subject – Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2010 Subject
2010 High Salary
Greater $100K 2010
Greater $100K 2009
Increase 2010 vs. 2009
Art 154,748
166
145
14.48%
Art Clothing/Apparel 144,895
9
7
28.57%
Clothing/Apparel Drama 171,595
26
24
8.33%
Drama Drive Ed 164,985
138
132
4.55%
Drive Ed Elementary Education 137,175
800
556
43.88%
Elementary Education English 189,219
493
430
14.65%
English Foodservice 131,005
20
15
33.33%
Foodservice French 172,992
49
40
22.50%
French Latin 145,596
9
8
12.50%
Latin Librarians 154,071
193
111
73.87%
Librarians Music 164,415
275
231
19.05%
Music Nurse 136,166
26
23
13.04%
Nurse Phys Ed 191,124
710
591
20.14%
Phys Ed Speech 167,476
123
92
33.70%
Speech SOURCES: Salaries from ISBE, Teacher Service Records year Ending 6/30/10
Why do taxpayers have to pay these outrageous salaries and benefits?
Since the purpose of taxes is to “provide for the common good”, please explain to me
what common good is “provided for” by making public employees millionaires? I would suggest that school districts that can afford to pay compensation of this magnitude should be paying for their own pensions rather than throwing it on the backs of all the state taxpayers. Doing that would save the state $1.6 billion a year. We cannot control teacher pensions unless we control teachers’ salaries.
The “wealth transfer” progressives’ talk about is not from the rich to the poor but from everyone to the public employees. There would be billions more dollars available for the poor if public employee compensation were equal to the private sector – and without raising taxes.
Bill Zettler is a free-lance writer and consultant specializing in public sector compensation. He can be contacted at this email address. Click here to read more by Mr. Zettler.
