The next generation of leaders and citizens in the U.S. depend on these professionals to be inspired, mentored, led, and cultivated– I’m talking about teachers, and specifically why they should get paid more.

Humor me for a moment– let’s briefly look at professional athletes; in Major League Baseball, the average salary for a player is $4.9 million. For teachers in Greater Seattle? That number is around $90k a year after 10 years in the Issaquah School District. Now, pro sports is a business, and for the sake of the article, I’m not arguing they should get paid less than the lucrative deals they attract. What I am saying is that those responsible for educating the future of our nation need a pay raise.

There has been a major demand for teachers throughout the country in recent years, with many teachers quitting their jobs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic many of them cited pay as a contributing factor to their decision. When bright students in high school and university are mapping out their careers with opportunities in business, healthcare, the trades, and more –  all of which can be quite lucrative, teaching becomes a less appealing option for many. 

In Greater Seattle, the median sale price for a home was $770k. With this information, the question becomes: how much would a teacher in our area need to make in order to purchase a home? The answer might surprise you– to buy the average home in the Seattle-area, you would need to make at least $215k. 

Now, one of the common arguments for why teachers shouldn’t make more money is this: they get summers off. What many seem to fail to acknowledge is that teachers are not paid for overtime. While police officers and firefighters, other public servants, are compensated for their work after hours, teachers are not paid anything for any of the time spent after hours on lesson planning, grading, and creating assignments.

Now would it be feasible to be able to pay all teachers in Greater Seattle at least $215k? Probably not, but what I am saying is that if the teacher income to median home price gap in our area is far greater than in many other parts of the country, this has the potential of impacting the quality of education in our area in the future. If teachers in Greater Seattle struggle to achieve common goals like buying a house, being able to start a family, and more, then don’t be surprised when quality educators leave the school districts of our region to pursue other opportunities when they are more fairly compensated for the work they do.