Teacher salaries vary by pay, competitiveness, study finds

Just because a school district pays teachers a lot of money does not always mean the pay is competitive, a study by the nonprofit National Center for Teacher Quality found on Wednesday.

Looking at teacher salaries of 113 of the largest school districts in 2013-2014, the study found that when adjusted for the cost of living, many schools with the highest pay have the lowest purchasing power.

Among those is the New York City school district. Its teachers are some of the highest paid in the nation with a starting salary of $45,686 and an ending salary of $100,391 but the high cost of living in the city makes their starting and ending salaries worth only $10,577 and $23,242, the study found.

The school districts with the highest adjusted incomes were Pittsburgh, Columbus, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

The study also found that the amount of time it takes for a teacher to earn the highest average maximum salary of $75,000 varies by district. For example, in Boston it takes an average of seven years to reach the maximum pay while in Rochester, New York, it takes 48 years.

On average, it takes teachers an average of 24 years to reach the maximum pay in their district, the study showed.