Footenotes

Them:

“Teaching is certainly one of the most underpaid jobs.”

Median teacher’s salary in my state is 60k for working 3/4′s of a year.

Me:

Why the downvotes? It is a factual statement. There are a couple of things to point out though. Many states the pay schedule is done by district, not by state. A teacher’s pay is determined by the number of years teaching and, essentially, the number of collage credits they have. How does that point on the pay schedule compare to other professions for the same experience and education (factoring for 3/4 of the year of course).

There are also cost of living factors to consider as well. One or two large cities with a high cost of living can inflate the median above the point you are trying to make. That is why look per city is much more effective than per state.

And there is always this classic, but flawed, example. If I was paid as a baby sitter in Oregon (min wage per student. I’ll use one of the worse schools I subed at where the teacher had 40 kids in each class): $8.80 * 8 hrs/day * 40 students * 180 employed days = $506,880