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Wisconsin teacher pay drops to lowest level in 50 years
Posted: 2/16/2011 10:07:15 AM
New data just released by the National Education Association shows the average salary for Wisconsin teachers has dropped to 23rd nationally, down from 21st one year ago. That is the lowest ranking going back to 1963, the oldest data on record.
The average salary, which includes annual step increases for longevity and lane changes for educational attainment, was $51,264. Fifty-two percent of Wisconsin teachers hold master’s degrees and the average teacher has 16 years experience.
Once ranked 15th, teacher pay was capped in 1993 and has fallen ever since. Where teachers once received 103 percent of the national average in pay, they now receive only 93 percent.
In the last decade, real earnings for Wisconsin teachers declined by 2.3 percent. Teachers earn less today than they did a decade ago. Wisconsin ranked 46th nationally in salary change, with 45 states experiencing larger increases in income.
Starting pay in Wisconsin, which lands at $33,800, lost 5 percent to inflation, so that new teachers today earn $1,225 dollars less than they did in 1992. Wisconsin ranks 30th nationally on staring pay, lower than teachers in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Minnesota in the Midwest. Teachers in general have the lowest starting pay of any profession requiring a college degree.
Teacher pay is falling compared to standard economic measures like inflation and per capita income, pay is falling relative to other teachers nationally, and Wisconsin teachers today are in the bottom 40 percent of all states for starting pay.