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Wisconsin Teachers Earned Average $75,587 in Total Compensation in 2010
Protesters sleep inside the State Capitol in Madison, Wis., on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
(CNSNews.com) – Public school teachers in Wisconsin earned a combined $75,587 in total average compensation – wages and benefits – in 2010, according to figures from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
The average compensation of Wisconsin public school teachers is up 9 percent from $69,321 in 1998, the earliest figures available from the DPI, adjusted for inflation.
Also, teacher compensation has steadily increased since that year, according to DPI figures, which are collected from each of the state’s 427 school districts.
Total compensation covers hourly wages and benefits, which include health insurance, life insurance, retirement pensions, and other benefits such as homeowners insurance, auto insurance, and tuition reimbursement, according to the DPI. Not every district offers teachers the full range of benefits allowed by the state.
Those benefit packages, at the center of a state budget fight among teachers’ and public employee unions and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) have also been getting steadily more lucrative, according to calculations by CNSNews.com.
In 1998, Wisconsin teachers received an average of $18,120 in inflation-adjusted benefits, according to the DPI -- a figure that rose to $26,005 in 2010.
Benefits have made up an ever-increasing share of teachers’ compensation in Wisconsin since 1998, rising from 26 percent of total compensation in 1998 to 34 percent in 2010.
In real terms, these benefit increases have represented large compensation increases for Wisconsin teachers. For instance, in 1998, benefits, if viewed in terms of dollar value, increased total compensation by 35 percent, meaning that teachers’ total compensation was 35 percent higher than it would have been without the benefits.
By 2010, benefits increased total compensation by 52 percent from an average of $49,580 in cash wages to $75,587 in benefits, on top of the cash wages -- $49,580 in wages plus $26,005 worth of benefits.
Total average compensation (wages and benefits) for Wisconsin teachers from 1998 to 2010, adjusted for inflation, are listed below.
1998: $69,321.61
1999: $70,102.56
2000: $68,692.28
2001: $68,916.99
2002: $69,516.53
2003: $70,167.36
2004: $71,315.41
2005: $71,642.95
2006: $71,605.25
2007: $73,018.93
2008: $71,726.44
2009: $75,216.44
2010: $75,587.79
All figures have been adjusted for inflation.
