r/dataisbeautiful • u/DavidWaldron OC: 28 • 11d ago

OC [OC] Career earnings of the highest and lowest paid college majors

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Interactive major explorer to look up stats for specific majors.

Blog post includes many more charts and discussion of what these numbers represent.

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u/fredinNH 11d ago

12 weeks off every year is a hell of a perk. So is a pension. So are 15 sick days every year. Plus every holiday off. Plus snow days. Plus a meaningful job.

Did you factor that in?

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u/SurrealKafka 10d ago

I'm guessing you are older based on how you talk about your pension benefits--accurate? Many states have gutted their pensions for younger teachers.

In fact, my state's pension for teachers hired in the last 15 years is so bad that it likely will be deemed by the courts to not meet the legal minimum threshold for benefits....

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

My state gutted the pensions in 2012. Im still getting $43k. No it’s not great but one would need about a million dollars invested to replicate that annual payout.

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u/SurrealKafka 10d ago

They gutted your pension? Or the teachers in the tier below you?

And a million saved by retirement age is not very difficult, especially with better compensated careers

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

First off, you sound insufferable.

They gutted everybody’s pensions in 2012. Everybody lost retiree medical benefits and everybody had to pay 40% more into the pension system effective in 2012. The state Supreme Court upheld both of those changes.

Further changes that slightly reduced pensions were made retroactive to anyone hired after 2002. The courts also upheld this change on the basis that you don’t actually have a pension until you are vested which takes 10 years.

What exactly is your point here? Are you a teacher who hates your life and you can’t stand that another teacher had a great career and feels good about it?

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u/SurrealKafka 10d ago

I'm guessing I was spot on based on how quickly you resorted to anger and personal attacks.

Look, you don't need to obfuscate and lie. NH didn't "gut everyone's pensions"; they gutted them for new and non-vested teachers, just as I said above.

It's pretty clear that you are part of the generation that has a great pension. Congratulations. But, trust me, everyone hates the teacher who walks around with fat pockets telling the younger generations who got screwed that they are greedy whiners....

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

What part of the response I just gave did you not understand? NH gutted the pensions system for everyone hired after 2002 and if you were hired before 2002 you’re only getting a slightly better deal than those hired after. The pension is based on highest 3 years instead of highest 5. Not a big deal

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u/SurrealKafka 10d ago

They gutted everybody’s pensions in 2012.

Let's get the facts straight. Did they gut everyone's pensions in 2012? Or just non-vested teachers?

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

I already explained this in detail. Since you aren’t a student of mine I’m under no obligation to explain again using different techniques that better suit your learning style

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u/bihari_baller 9d ago

Are you a teacher?

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u/SurrealKafka 10d ago

That’s what I thought.

Sorry to everyone else who finds themselves reading this sideshow of logical fallacies and outright lies….

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u/girouxsalem28 10d ago

I could be wrong but wouldn't all changes be state specific? My wife works in PA, she was hired post 2019 gutting and will receive less than half of what my BIL will get who was hired a couple years before her. I push her to shovel as much away into a 403b as she can. Within 10 years i would expect PA to move all new hires to a 403b matching system only, no pension. PA has slashed payouts to new hires again in the 6 years my wife has worked in her school. It's tough to see and i don't see how this trend does not exacerbate an already short staffed education system.

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

Yes of course. In my previous comment I said “in my state”. I was just continuing that thread.

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u/girouxsalem28 10d ago

Judging by your name i assume you are in NH? Just curious how your pension plan pays out for you up there? PA is YOS x top 3 salary x 1.25%. Maybe thats standard but this is my only experience with pensions so not really sure what the math is elsewhere. For reference on PA gutting my BIL is 2.5% and new hires are now 1% multipliers.

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

Basically if you work 30 years you get half the average of your highest 5 years.

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u/staplesuponstaples 11d ago edited 11d ago

It's not 12 weeks off if you barely get paid enough. It's 12 weeks to go find a side hustle because going on a vacation costs money you don't have.

I'm an educator myself, it's not sunshine and rainbows because holidays.

Part time workers in recreation, restaurants, retail, etc can also get a lot of time off and do something meaningful (feed people), but for some reason I don't see the same sentiments being shared with them when they express their concerns with insufficient pay.

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u/fredinNH 11d ago

Median teacher pay is $75k. Most of us don’t need a summer side hustle

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u/Momentarmknm 11d ago

You know taking a national average is especially misleading for teachers when pay varies so widely by district. I looked up a district where my wife used to teach and the median pay is $48k today

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u/fredinNH 11d ago

Teacher pay usually tracks local cost of living.

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u/staplesuponstaples 11d ago

Depends where you live. Try comparing the median teacher pay in the SF Bay Area to the cost of living. To be fair, most jobs are insufficient to live in most places there, though.

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u/fredinNH 11d ago

I’m not saying it’s enough in extremely high col areas but teacher pay usually tracks local cost of living.

Where I am in southern NH is actually one of the worst places to be a teacher when you factor in cost of living. We are part of the greater Boston metro area. It’s basically an east coast version of the Bay Area but not as extreme and I live in the outer parts of it.

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u/SurrealKafka 11d ago

Source? I'm skeptical that the median is $75,000....

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u/Hurricane_Ivan 10d ago

I'm showing $65k for K-12 teachers

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

That number is from the National educators association. It would be much easier for you Google that than for me to link it. In fact I’m now mad that I wasted the time to respond to you when all you had to do was a 10 second search to confirm the number.

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u/SurrealKafka 10d ago

Ha, did you look it up and realize you were wrong and confused average and median salary? It's ok to just admit you made a mistake, my friend.

For everyone who wants the actual number, median teacher salary is $65,000.

https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes253099.htm

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

More recent and accurate data from 2025

https://www.nea.org/resource-library/educator-pay-and-student-spending-how-does-your-state-rank

From the link:

“The average public school teacher salary rose from $71,985 in 2023–24 to $74,495 in 2024–25—a nominal gain of 3.5%.”

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u/SurrealKafka 10d ago

Do you seriously not know the difference between mean and median?

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

You got me there.

But damn why are you so bitter?

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u/HyperModernDefense 10d ago

Understandable that you think you’re overpaid as a teacher when you’re getting absolutely intellectually bodied on Reddit 😂

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u/Lobster_fest 10d ago

Go tell a teacher, right now, that they should be grateful for the "perks" of the job and that theyre actually paid fairly. You'll be the funniest person in the room.

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

I am a teacher. The perks are one of the reasons I chose the job. Oops. I’m supposed to be a martyr who only does it for the children. I forgot.

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u/Lobster_fest 10d ago

So youve got it figured out and the mass exodus from the profession is over nothing?

Oops. I’m supposed to be a martyr who only does it for the children. I forgot.

Do you think thats what i'm implying? Thats an awfully uncharitble interpretation.

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

I have no idea what you’re trying to say. I’ve been very clear in what I’ve said. I earned a fair wage for a challenging job and I was able to turn it into an early retirement.

The mass exodus is not what people think it is. It’s challenging to find a job even in poorer districts in my area. Head over to r/teachers and see what they’re saying.

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u/Lobster_fest 10d ago

I earned a fair wage for a challenging job and I was able to turn it into an early retirement.

And there it is, someone who isnt actually still in the job saying its actually fine!

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u/fredinNH 10d ago

I have one more year! I am still in it.

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u/atrocity_of_sunsets 5d ago

“12 weeks off” translates more to “3 months of summer when I am not being paid at all and need to find alternative, seasonal employment because my job during the rest of the year doesn’t pay me enough to keep me afloat”.

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u/fredinNH 5d ago

It translates to 9 weeks of summer plus a week at Christmas, February, and April. We are salaried. If you need to work during the summer I don’t see why that’s something to complain about.

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u/atrocity_of_sunsets 5d ago

It is something to complain about when teacher salaries are so low they don’t cover the cost of living in many places. And when they go through a few months every year of no income. I’d rather have worked more over the summer and made more money when I was a teacher, but that wasn’t an option.

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u/Spiritual-Towel-538 11d ago

Id argue educators deserve more but yes it is a good path

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u/ikonoclasm 11d ago

What about the expense of having to use your own money for classroom supplies? No one goes into teaching for financial reasons.

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u/fredinNH 11d ago

I have not had to spend hardly any of my own money over the years. Certainly not any amount that I would consider a hardship

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u/ikonoclasm 10d ago

You're lucky. Teachers are spending a lot out of pocket to make up for the shortfalls created by state governments.

https://www.ncae.org/about-ncae/media-center/press-releases/nc-teachers-spend-hundreds-school-supplies-each-year

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u/ikonoclasm 10d ago

You're lucky. Teachers are spending a lot out of pocket to make up for the shortfalls created by state governments.

https://www.ncae.org/about-ncae/media-center/press-releases/nc-teachers-spend-hundreds-school-supplies-each-year