College Instructor vs high school teacher salary comparison

Who gets paid more, a college instructor or a high school teacher? We will take a look at salary plus all of the fringe benefits! What I reveal might just surprise you…

Hey everyone, this is Eric and I am the teacher money coach. This video will examine the difference in salary between my wife, a high school teacher, and me, a college instructor. 

We need to start with a little background information. I am in my fourth year as an instructor at a small 4 year private college in central IL. While I am full time and on a continuing appointment, I am not on tenure track, and my title is “Instructor.” That means I make a little bit less (a few thousand) than the “professors” on tenure track, but do basically the exact same job.

My wife is in her 9th year at the high school. She has her masters degree plus 16 credits. She also has a few stipends, such as class sponsor, FCCLA sponsor, and Flags coach.Let’s dive into the numbers. 

First we will look at salary, then I will get into some other benefits. My gross salary is just over $50,000. I also get a 5% match to my 403b, which gives an extra $2,500 to my retirement account each year. So total money coming to me is about $52,500.

My wife’s base salary is $48,600. She also earns $1,400 for being a class sponsor, $2,400 for FCCLA, and $700 for coaching flags, which totals $4,500. So salary plus stipends is $53,100 gross salary. She also has 9% of her pay go to the IL pension system, and this is paid by the school. This is an extra $4,800. So, total money going to my wife is $57,900. This is over $5,000 more than me in what I would consider salary, or money coming directly to us or to our retirement.

Surprised? Most people are when they find out that a high school teacher makes more than a college instructor.

There are some other things to consider, health insurance being a huge factor. Our three kids are on my insurance. If they were on my wife's insurance, it would cost us an additional $600 per month! That is over 7 grand a year. If I was still a jr high teacher we would have been forced to pay that outrageously high cost because we worked in the same district. So, even though this isn’t exactly salary, my new insurance allows us to keep way more of what we earn. 

I get two other fantastic benefits as a college instructor. One, I get an entire semester of paid paternity leave when a child is born or adopted. I used this in fall 2020 when our daughter was born and will use it again this fall after child number 4 is born. This is incredible bonding time and it staves off the cost of daycare a few more months. My wife does not get any paid leave (come on K-12 education and America as a whole, we need to do better than this). 

The next great benefit of working at a college is something we will use in the future, and that is free college tuition for my children to the college I teach at or any of the 300 partnering schools. Now I recognize that the cost of college might be very different by the time my children are in college, either higher or potentially lower, but it is still an incredible benefit when we have 3 kids with one more on the way. This could easily save us hundreds of thousands of dollars on tuition.

The last thing I need to mention about being a college instructor is I get more time off than K-12 teachers. Our semesters are shorter which means my breaks are longer. This doesn’t necessarily mean I work less days, but I am with students less than my wife is. In addition, I teach 1 or two classes a day, whereas my wife teaches 6!

Two areas where my position is not as great as my wife's. First, I am not guaranteed a raise every year. In fact, I went multiple years on a pay freeze until this year where I got a 3% raise. I know there are some states and school districts where k-12 teachers are on pay freezes (and have been for some time), but my wife has gotten a raise every year she has been there. Next, my wife has tenure. She is more protected than I am if cuts had to be made. 

To sum it all up, my wife, a high school teacher, has a higher salary than me, a college instructor. However, the other benefits of being a professor such as better insurance, paid leave, free college tuition for my children, and longer breaks, definitely make up for the smaller salary.

Let me know what questions you have in the comments and please hit subscribe to be notified of future videos

I am Eric, the Teacher Money Coach, helping you take control of your money.