Date: 2|17|2011
Average Salary Plus Benefits of “Sick” Teachers at Protest is $77,673
courtsey leighvalleylive
February 17, 2011, Milwaukee, WI– On Thursday, thirteen Wisconsin school districts had to close their doors due to the number of teachers calling in “sick.” In fact, many of the “sick” teachers showed up in Madison today to protest the Budget Repair Bill. At issue are their salaries and pension plans.
According to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the average teacher’s salaries and average fringe benefits appear to be very generous given the recent economic downturn. Media Trackers has compiled the information below for the school districts that were forced to close on Thursday.
Columbus School District $72,460
De Forest School District $69,201
Eau Claire School District $80,198
Edgarton School District $75,061
La Crosse School District $83,364
Madison Metropolitan School District $75,558
Mosinee School District $80,746
Oregon School District $66,942
Racine School District $88,453
Stoughton School District $72,830
Verona School District $77,214
Watertown School District $82,244
Wausau School District $85,478
Average Salary and Benefits for School Districts Closed On Thursday $77,673
Note to readers: The facts and figures in this article were double checked for accuracy and the average did change to $77,673. We apologize for this mistake as we always attempt to provide you with accurate facts and information.
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Discussion | 20 Comments on "Average Salary Plus Benefits of “Sick” Teachers at Protest is $77,673"
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WINow said
Feb 17, 2011 at 11:08 PM
Just to let you know, your “data” shows the salaries for administrators, not teachers. Also the protest isn’t about the benefits, it’s about canceling the collective bargaining agreement. Your teachers likely weren’t paid well.
collin said
Feb 17, 2011 at 11:12 PM
The data is taken from the Department of Public Instruction website. If one scrolls down to the “teacher” section and download the 2010 data, that is where the data was compiled.
Terence said
Feb 18, 2011 at 6:25 PM
How about everyone just makes a total of $45,000 both teachers and the administration. The $45,000 is both salary and benefits. The Individual teachers can decide if they want the $45,000 in salary or take some of the benefits with a lower salary. My family makes less than $30,000 a year and we aren’t complaining. My father was in the military and now he is retired and his check from the military didn’t go up for the past several years. He would even take some cuts for the sake of lower the burden of future tax payers.
CR said
Feb 17, 2011 at 11:12 PM
You may want to double-check your reporting. Follow the link and read the definitions on the title page of the report. The salary is for administrators — not teachers — such as district administrators, principals, vice-principals, etc.
collin said
Feb 17, 2011 at 11:15 PM
See above.
WINow said
Feb 17, 2011 at 11:18 PM
Ok, on the 2010 teacher file why does my file that I downloaded say that the average salary for Lacrosse is 55000 and you have a figure in the 80s?
CR said
Feb 17, 2011 at 11:21 PM
I see what they’re doing. They’re adding salaries AND benefits. They mention it in the text of the “Article” but the title is a bit misleading. So, the data is accurate, if you note they are adding the value of benefits. The benefits package probably is generous, but I wonder how many people realize how much their own employers spend on their benefits.
collin said
Feb 17, 2011 at 11:23 PM
The amount is calculated by adding the average salary plus the average fringe (which is benefits). For La Crosse School District this comes to a total package of $83,364.
collin said
Feb 18, 2011 at 12:04 AM
Note to readers: The facts and figures in this article were double checked for accuracy and the average did change. We apologize for this mistake as we always attempt to provide you with accurate facts and information.
Ronald Lanners said
Feb 18, 2011 at 12:50 AM
I think its about time we have someone in mMadison that going to change how the unions drive the cost of everything up. My wife is a farmer and she has to take what her employer gives her. I know you educated people would say she could of went to college and gotten a better job, but we all can”t work for the system. I”m disabled and between the two of us we make about 40000.00 dollars a year, maybe all farm jobs should be unionized and than watch the price of food go up. A gallon of milk would be about 10.00. My wife has to work every weekend with no raise and 2 sundays off a month. I don’t know what we would do with about 72000.00 a year. Teachers get off about 15 weeks a year with full bennies, maybe you whiners should live like the rest of us. If u cant survive’maybe come and see how the real workers live and go without. I would be happy to pay less than 200.00 dollars a month for retirement after 30 years retire with about 3000.00 a month. We have to save for our own retirement. Keep up with the good work Gov Walker!!!!!!!!!
Jared said
Feb 19, 2011 at 4:17 AM
Frankly, teachers work very hard for their $45,000 a year. Try substitute teaching sometime and see if you would do that job for less than $40k. In addition, while teachers get summers “off” they spend most of their summers attending required (and often necessary) continuing education classes that they have to pay for out of pocket. They use this time also to plan for the next school year, and good grief they need the breathing room to recover from a long school year. You speak about that which you do not know.
Jared said
Feb 19, 2011 at 4:21 AM
Oh, and you do realize this site is misleading you by adding benefits into the figure and letting you think this whole number is the salary unless you happen to notice the bit in italics that is so easy to miss. I’ve had employers use this same trick every year when they explained I wasn’t going to get a pay rise but instead showed me how much I was being “compensated” — always some outrageous sum, $45k when in reality I only made about $20k in wages. Besides which, the true issue here is the loss of collective bargaining rights and the slow slide back into pre-Depression era labor conditions in this country. You must not have listened to your grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ stories.
WisconsinTeacher said
Feb 19, 2011 at 6:31 AM
I grew up on a farm as well. My dad was always trying to make it, but just never really could and finally sold it to my brother who had to work off the farm in order to support it. Times were tough and we never really knew what we were missing because there was no electronics. But my father wanted more for me and allowed me to go to college and become a teacher. He was and still is so proud of me and all teachers who have given so much for all his grandchildren so they can play sports and get a good education. The life of a farmer is one of the hardest especially if you have the burden of milking cows 2 times a day. Please remember that teachers are NOT the enemy. Let’s lay the blame where it belongs which is with the greed of corporations, the filthy rich and a political system that doesn’t seem to be working too well these days!
Laurie said
Feb 19, 2011 at 2:44 AM
I’m sorry, but which of the data sets are you looking at? Because when looking at the Teachers data set, none of these numbers add up. I see that the average salaries are:
Columbus School District $47,179
De Forest School District $49,981
Eau Claire School District $52,356
Edgarton School District $47,752
La Crosse School District $55,139
Madison Metropolitan School District $52,022
Mosinee School District $55,329
Oregon School District $48,629
Racine School District $53,288
Stoughton School District $51,509
Verona School District $55,565
Watertown School District $57,258
Wausau School District $58,420
I think that you are looking at the Entire Administrative Salary Report which contains no teacher salary data but only data for principals and administrative staff members. Could you please clarify and show your work here? Thank you.
collin said
Feb 19, 2011 at 4:07 AM
It is Salary plus Benefits. Take the average teacher salary and add the average fringe benefits.
cheryl swyers said
Feb 19, 2011 at 5:08 AM
Teachers here in Missouri are not paid anywhere near this amount! About half of the least Wisconsin salary on that list is starting pay here…on average.
Brian Leingang said
Feb 20, 2011 at 11:53 AM
So, the source for teachers gives low, average, and high salaries for each district, then gives benefits and lists the average experience of teachers. The source for average Milwaukee workers is payscale.com, which doesn’t break any of that information down. In fact, it shows teachers making $42,767. The information is skewed and misleading. http://www.payscale.com/research/US/State=Wisconsin/Salary/by_Employer_Type
Brian Leingang said
Feb 20, 2011 at 11:56 AM
Sorry, I meant to comment on the link to this from here http://www.thecloakroomblog.com/2011/02/average-wisconsin-striking-teacher-salary-77718-average-wisconsin-worker%E2%80%99s-salary-53724/
You can delete the above if you want.
cas127 said
Feb 20, 2011 at 1:25 PM
One massively important fact that has been left out of this discussion: The median salaries of the private sector employees whom the teachers allegedly “serve”.
Or, “Who is the master and who is the servant?”
I don’t know the figures for Wisconsin off hand but nationally the median *household* income (husband *and* wife) is about $50,000 – or what a Wisconsin “public serpent (er, servant) makes *by themselves”.
Who’s zooming who, public sector hucksters?