<p>If you factor in a teachers pension pay, do their earnings come close to private sector employees (say an accountant, engineer, etc). Also would you say that teachers get paid more per hour, since they only work until 3, and get 2 months off every year? Just curious about this, I'm not an education major by the way.</p>
<p>Accountants and engineers get 401K plans also, so take that out of the equation.</p>
<p>No, teachers’ earnings don’t come close. My wife is a HS teacher. Many of her colleagues are the sole support for the family, and most of their families qualify for government benefits, like free school lunch. It’s embarrassing.</p>
<p>As to working only till 3: yes, the bad teachers run home and watch TV, but the good ones stay at school longer and/or bring work home with them. </p>
<p>Regarding summer, a lot of those hours are spent preparing for the next school year, taking classes, or completing other professional development activities required for recertification.</p>
<p>None of those extra hours get recorded anywhere, so the public really has no idea.</p>
<p>But isn’t 401k is a lot less than pension?</p>
<p>Yea I guess teachers do bring work home. Didn’t think to factor that in.</p>
<p>401K is a kind of pension. There are several. The kind that public employees are under varies from state to state, and sometimes district to district. How much the employer contributes is the biggest determinant in how much the employee will earn after retirement. For some pensions, time served also makes a difference. For 401K plans, there are penalties for withdrawing savings at an early age. And the economy has a big effect also. The face value of my 401K dropped by about 50% when the economy tanked 6 years ago. (It’s better now.) Some pension plans were protected from that. But if the economy picks up, a 401K could do better if the economy does better.</p>
<p>In addition to the other poster, at least in NYS teachers are not 12 month employers. A lot of people don’t know this but teachers (again, in NY) are paid biweekly for 10 months, not during breaks. Unlike other professions teachers do not get paid vacation. They must use sick days and if they need family leave, that is unpaid as well. ( maternity leave uses up sick days and is unpaid for as well)</p>