Two noteworthy dimensions when considering difficulty of job, especially as it relates to other professions, including highly-compensated tech workers:
(1) Average salary of teachers is approximately 40% less than the average salary of any STEM-related-field worker).[1]
(2) Schools are a unique legal environment with respect to torts and the criminal law in that actions against teachers which would in other contexts constitute unlawful acts appropriate for remedy in courts is instead most often investigated, adjudicated, and penalty rendered by a combination of the school’s head, administration, and resource officers.
There is also the non-emergent but nevertheless constantly renewed concern about the viability and mortality of teachers and students with respect to mass violence as well.[2]
By contrast, the BLS [1] says the median pay is $60k, and the bottom 10% earns at most $45k.
This doesn't seem to square with "most teachers make less than $37k".
Perhaps the BLS data is skewed? I'm Canadian, so don't know how they collect it. But my intuition is that they are likely to have access to much better data than ZipRecruiter. The fact that ZipRecruiter thinks no teacher earns between $55k and $70k is also a little dubious.
You’re right that the BLS is a stronger authority and a more reliable source, generally.
I’d just note that the statistics you cite relate to high school teachers, who are compensated most highly among K-12 teachers, while the discussion in the thread and the ZipRecruiter data relates to teachers broadly, including K-8.
This is a good call-out. Looking online, the BLS uses its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (https://www.bls.gov/oes/mb3-methods.pdf) to gather their underlying data.
I put my comment together based on a quick google search and an appreciation for graphics; BUT, I’d take the BLS survey’s response bias over ZipRecruiter’s sample bias any day (the data is derived from ZR’s own job listings).
I’ll make edits to reflect your information. I think the underlying observation that teachers are compensated much less than tech workers is unchallenged (average salary of a teachers is approximately 40% less than the average salary of any STEM-related-field worker).[1]
> Average salary of teachers is approximately 40% less than the average salary of any STEM-related-field worker).[1]
This makes sense as teachers are basically median pay and STEM is much above median. Also, I think STEM has a very different skill set and higher risk. People get fired all the time in STEM while teacher is a very low risk job.
The related analysis is that comparing one’s expenses without also comparing comparing income is an incomplete comparison. That was the nature of inclusion in the comment in reply to the grandfather commentor.
(1) Average salary of teachers is approximately 40% less than the average salary of any STEM-related-field worker).[1]
(2) Schools are a unique legal environment with respect to torts and the criminal law in that actions against teachers which would in other contexts constitute unlawful acts appropriate for remedy in courts is instead most often investigated, adjudicated, and penalty rendered by a combination of the school’s head, administration, and resource officers.
There is also the non-emergent but nevertheless constantly renewed concern about the viability and mortality of teachers and students with respect to mass violence as well.[2]
[1]https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ocwage.pdf
[2]https://www.chds.us/ssdb/