Yorkieabroad

Salaries round here start around 30, and rise to around 100k for the principals. It's certainly not a get rich quick career. Maybe explains why a bunch of my mates in the UK that were teachers were always miserable gits.

Nutek

You are my hero.

Sally Redux

Not a get rich ever career

Nutek

There are some ways to boost it up. Some of which make me

Band leader... 4K stipend for conducting the band. I mean, How is that extra?

SultanOfSwing

I know my job is not as high up the ladder of importance as education, but I only make a few grand over the high end of that range.

I always thought (for a non-degree holding non-salaried employee) that I did alright. Now I find I'm only a few percentage points above 'pathetic'

Seriously though, I always though teachers made a bit more than that. More in the $45-50 range. They should make that anyway. For that matter, so should I ...

Have you heard how shite some of those bands are? Getting them into even a close approximation of 4/4 time deserves a bonus.

Sally Redux

Nutek

But.. What does the Band leader do apart from "lead the band"? I wish I got a 4k bonus for doing what I already do.

Nutek

WEBlue

If I recall correctly, teachers are better paid in the UK than in most of the USA. Minimum starting salaries run £21,800 in England & Wales, or can be around £27,300 in inner London. (I think these are last year's figures.)

http://www.education.gov.uk/get-into...ng/salary.aspx

No three summer months off in the UK, though, so maybe no second job is possible.

SultanOfSwing

They're more likely already the music teacher, and then they conduct the band at off-campus concerts and tournaments or whatever school bands do when they're not practicing and being half a tone out of tune with each other.

Sort of 'overtime' for the music teacher. I don't know, but it wouldn't be all they did.

Unless ... they bring in a conductor from outside of the school to lead the band and just bung them $4K a year for doing it. Maybe. I don't know.

Sally Redux

I used to work in FE (16+) and at one time we had the same or better pay than schoolteachers, but their union was (and still is, I think) much better than ours so they have thrashed out some good deals for their members.

Pulaski

Looks like your salaries are about 50%+/- those round here, but the houses about twice the price, so it's probably about a wash.

Lbjen

But don't they get a decent retirement package and health benefits? I guess it depends on where still, the teachers in our old district got free healthcare for them and their families.

sir_eccles

Sure, just ask Detroit's former public servants how that's working out for them.

Pulaski

And retiring on x% of your salary sounds pretty good (assuming you're not in Detroit, or several cities in CA), until you remember that it's x% of not very much.