[Avshalom]

In New York for instance as far as I know a Masters Degree is required. That means that that top 10% $80,000 salary is being paid to a someone in the middle of NYC with 30 years of experience and a Masters degree (at least, probably a PHD).

Also yes firefighters earn terrifyingly low salaries, so do cops and a lot of other government funded position necessary for the continued survival of civilization

[yummyfajitas]

First, a masters in teaching is not hard to get. You basically just need to show up.

Also, the base pay of a teacher in NYC with 20 years experience is $83,000 (with pay going up if they have degrees). $83k/year for 39 hours/week, 9 months a year is not bad, even by NYC standards. (It's equivalent to $99k/year working all year.).

http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/DHR/TeacherPrincipalSchoolPro...

They also get to retire at 55 with a full pension, assuming they started work at 25. So you need to factor in the value of those extra years of pension, and fewer years of work to get it.

http://www.psc-cuny.org/PensionApermanentDecision.htm