Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Compensation Data

01:09 Top Earning Roles in School Districts

02:52 Common Positions and Their Salaries

04:41 Key Insights and Future Discussions

Transcript

Hi everyone, I'm Ryan Earley, host of the PERS Pro YouTube channel. Today, we're diving deep into some fascinating data that impacts every school district and potentially your career. We're talking about comprehensive compensation data from the 24-25 school year across various roles. Let's get started.

Before we dive in, make sure you hit that subscribe button down below so you don't miss any of our future videos. Our goal with this channel is to provide you with short, easy to understand financial education videos that are relevant to PERS members like you.

Disclaimer, this video is for educational and informational purposes only. Neither the host nor this YouTube channel are officially affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Public Employees Retirement System of Mississippi. Always consult a qualified professional for personal advice specific to your situation.

Today, we're going to tackle some big questions. What are the highest paying jobs in school districts? And what are the most common roles and what do they earn? We'll be looking at both average base salaries and total compensation.

Let's kick things off with the big earners. we've identified the top 10 highest paying roles, but with a crucial filter. We're only including positions that have data points from at least 50 different school districts ensuring these are widely recognized and compensated roles across the state.

As you can see from this table, leadership is where the top dollars are spent. The role of superintendent stands out significantly with an average total salary of nearly $140,000. We then see a strong presence of directors and supervisors covering critical areas like business, curriculum, and federal programs.

It's also worth noting that many of these roles especially the Superintendent, School Business Officer, Principal, and Assistant Principal roles are reported in well over 100 districts making their high compensation rates statistically reliable.

So we've seen the top of the pay scale. But what about the backbone of our school systems? What are the most common positions and what kind of salaries do they typically earn?

This next list ranks roles by their total FTE or full-time equivalent, essentially showing us where most of the human capital is invested. Think of one FTE equal to one employee.

Here are the top 10 roles by FTE along with their average base and total salaries. As this table demonstrates, elementary teachers and secondary teachers are by far the most numerous positions. They form the core of the educational workforce, but their average salaries between $50,000 and $53,000 are considerably lower than the administrative roles we just discussed.

Notice how the gap between the base salary and the total salary is quite small for most roles suggesting that supplemental pay is not a significant factor here with secondary teachers having the largest average supplemental pay.

It's also important to remember for positions like cafeteria workers, secretaries, bus drivers, and custodians that these numbers are average salaries that take into account employees that may only work 180 days and a couple of hours per day all the way up to employees that might work 240 days plus and eight hours a day.

Let's recap some of the key insights we can pull from this data. One, administrative value. All positions in the top 10 highest paid list are in administration or supervision. confirming districts place the highest monetary value in leadership and strategic oversight. Two, the teacher salary reality. While teachers are the largest segment of the workforce, their average total salaries are $30,000 to $50,000 less than high-ranking administrators. Three, teacher assistant compensation. Roles like teacher assistant and paraprofessional, which are critical to classroom function, especially at the elementary levels have average base salaries below $20,000, highlighting the low compensation for essential classroom support staff. 4. Salary add-ons are marginal. For the most populous roles, the difference between the average base and average total salary is negligible indicating limited access to large stipends or bonuses for the majority of school district employees.

In future episodes, we're going to take an even deeper dive into some of these most popular roles like teachers and principals, and project what their retirement benefit would look like at 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years into retirement. This will give you a clear picture of the lifetime earnings and long-term financial stability these careers can still offer.

Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss those future videos. If you found this video helpful, can thank me by liking the video and sharing it with other PERS members. If you have a follow-up question about PERS or anything else related to personal finance that impacts PERS members, please visit our website at perspro.ms and submit your question for a future episode. Thank you for your valuable public service to the state of Mississippi. We'll see you next time.