National Comparison

• All 8.4 million education, training and library jobs in the U.S. averaged an annual salary of $49,530 per year as of May 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These earnings included educational professionals who were not teachers, such as librarians and administrators, and those teachers with bachelor's degrees, as well as higher levels of education. This is greater than the mean annual salary of $43,460 per year for all 130.6 million workers in the U.S.
  
  

Locations

• Teachers with bachelor's degrees made an average base salary of $43,650 per year for the 2007 to 2008 school year. These are the latest figures available for the Digest of Education Statistics created by the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences. The state with the best pay for this degree was California, the most populous state in the U.S. Annual wages here averaged $56,950. It was followed by Rhode Island at $56,680 and the District of Columbia at $54,970. The states with the lowest salaries were South Dakota at $32,180, Nebraska at $34,190 and West Virginia at $34,410.
  
  

Experience

• The salaries for teachers with bachelor's degrees go up with experience. For example, those with two years or less make an average $36,780 per year, but at three to five years of work, pay goes up to $38,530. At 6 to 10 years of employment, earnings reach $42,270, and at 11 to 20 years, they rise to $47,380. Finally, with over 20 years of experience, teachers are paid $54,170 per year. Increases due to experience are true even by location. For example, in California, new employees receive average $44,770 per year, but with more than 20 years of work, teachers get $72,680.
  
  

Degree Comparisons

• Teachers with bachelor's degrees made less than the average for all teachers with all degrees, and also earned less than those with higher educational levels. For example, annual salaries ran an average $50,300 per year for all teachers at all levels. With a master's degree, teachers received $55,600. With an education specialty, they received $59,200, and with a Ph.D., they earned $60,000.