Teachers - Overpaid or Underpaid

As the daughter of a teacher, I was always led to believe teachers are underpaid. I grew up and realized this was not true.

Annual teacher's salary: according to BLS, the average secondary US school teacher earns an annual salary of $56.760.00, has 23 days of paid vacation, 13 sick days, and earns an additional of $25,000.00 in additional benefits. BUT wait! That teacher only works 9 months a year. They usually arrive to work one hour before school starts and leave 30 minutes after school ends and usually have a one hour lunch meaning they actually work 7 hours including lunch. Plus they get off for over 20 holidays per year on top of 2 days off at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks off at Christmas, 1 week off for spring break, working an average of 195 days per year. Oh and that sick time and vacation time can accumulate over the years enabling retirement 2-5 years AFTER they have actually worked. They get full pension set at the salary they are getting when they retire. This has resulted in many teachers going into the management arena to double their retirement income making the average retirement income of over $100,000.00 very common.

Who really thinks teachers are underpaid? I sure do.