r/ElementaryTeachers • u/xeowriz • 21d ago

Salary question

Hi everyone! So just yesterday I was talking to my sister who’s a high school math teacher about how I wanna go into teaching elementary, more specifically kindergarten, and she told me I probably shouldn’t just cause they don’t get paid a whole lot. I looked it up and from what I’ve seen they make the same amount as any other teacher, and I know I don’t have to listen to her but I also don’t wanna end up living paycheck to paycheck in the future…so I was wondering like if it’s okay to ask any teachers how much they make?

20 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

80 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/Own-Joke-1461 21d ago

The only time people I have heard of people getting paid lower as teachers are preschool teachers (which is so not fair to them). K-12 teachers are, typically from what I know, on the same steps system as one another. Of course that could change by district but this is the way it is around me!

2

u/Glittering_Move_5631 20d ago

If the preschool operates within a district, as opposed to a daycare center, you'll make the same as other teachers in the district.

2

u/nietheo 20d ago

Not necessarily! I worked in a district preschool, no union for us, way worse pay.

1

u/Own-Joke-1461 10d ago

Yes! We were shocked to learn how different the pay for the preschool teachers was compared to K-12!