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by geomark 788 days ago
Health coverage is nitpicking? And two months of vacation every summer?
1 comments

Health coverage is only worth a few thousand dollars. It's not a $50k bonus. They earn well below a typical developer salary. It's not like our cushy jobs. Yes they have extra vacation time but have to use a lot of that on unpaid planning time or additional study for ongoing certification requirements.
This thread wasn't comparing vs programmers but vs average I think. Most jobs get paid less than teachers.
Stats show teachers get paid around average.
I agree with you. That's why I replied to a person that said they get paid below average as 1) they get paid around average as you say, and 2) they have a bunch of additional job perks that make it harder to calculate exactly.

The bureau of labor statistics is clear about the fact they are not paid less than average. Elementary and High school teachers make $73,890 mean wage compared to $65,470 for "all occupations":

1. https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/featured_data.htm#largest2

2. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes252031.htm

You can make this more complex and say that people with equivalent training get paid more, and they do, but then they don't have the perks I mentioned, like huge vacations, having the pleasure of teaching (there's a reason so many people want to teach and supply of teachers doesn't dwindle), pension after you retire, healthcare, and so on.

Yep, even accounting for that, it's still in the ballpark of "average salary". Nothing special.
No, the data show they are at average before accounting for the extra benefits. Since benefits are non-zero, they are above average.