Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Education Compensation in Mississippi

01:39 Exploring the Leadership Path in Education

03:46 Comparing Education Leadership Earnings to Professional Sports

05:40 Key Takeaways for Future Education Leaders

Transcript

Hi everyone, I'm Ryan Earley, host of the PERS Pro YouTube channel. When people talk about education compensation in Mississippi, they often focus on teaching roles, and rightfully so. But today, we're looking at a different career path, the leadership path. We've modeled numbers using 2024-2025 salary data for an educator who wishes to climb the ladder from the classroom all the way to the superintendent's office. We're talking about a career value that just doesn't rival pro sports as we showed in our last video with teachers lifetime earnings. The Leadership Path beats pro sport contracts and career earnings. 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.

To see the true wealth in Mississippi education leadership we modeled a 36-year career for someone starting today at age 22, assuming a 1.65% annual inflation adjustment on salary scales as a leader moves through these nine distinct education roles.

Elementary teacher and secondary teacher, years one through eight.

Lead Teacher and Instructional Coach, years 9 through 16.

Assistant Principal and Principal, years 17 through 24.

Director of Curriculum, Assistant Superintendent, and finally Superintendent, for years 25 through 36.

We assumed our career educator spent four years in each of these distinct roles and retired at the age of 58 after their 36 year career as a Tier 4 PERS member. The expected starting and ending salary numbers are as follows for each phase. Remember, we are assuming average salaries increase 1.65 % each year for each distinct role. Using the rule of 72, average salaries from 2024-2025 will double in approximately 43 years.

Reviewing the table, you see our hypothetical career education leader will start at $41,500 in their first year as a teacher and end their career earning $305,000 as their last year as a superintendent. We can then use this salary data by year to determine lifetime salary earnings, lifetime pension payments and lifetime social security benefits. When you combine our three earnings buckets, the results are as follows.

Career earnings. With 1.65 % annual inflation and the natural salary jumps of these promotions, this 36-year path generates approximately $4.8 million in gross lifetime salary earnings.

PERS Pension. This is where the leadership path really shines. Because the pension is based on your highest average salary, a superintendent's retirement is elite. If you retire after 36 years at age 58 and live to age 80, your total pension payouts, boosted by the 3 % COLA, will total approximately $7.4 million.

Social Security benefits. Estimated benefits from age 67 to age 80 contribute another $540,000. Total it all up and the lifetime value of this Mississippi leadership career is approximately $12.75 million.

To put your $12.75 million educator leadership career trajectory into perspective, it is helpful to look at the professional sports landscape. In sports, average or mean salaries are often inflated by outliers with superstars such as Patrick Mahomes. So the median value, the middle point of the league, provides a much more realistic comparison when computing the average pro athlete compensation.

Here is a table of the comparison of median contract values and median total career earnings across the four major North America leagues and how that compares to our hypothetical educator leadership career.

An educator on this superintendent path generates more than triple the wealth of the average MLB, NFL or NHL player. Why? Because nearly 58% of this lifetime value comes from the PERS pension. In sports, when the playing days end, the checks stop. But for a PERS member, your retirement is a defined benefit plan. It is guaranteed for your life and it grows every year with your COLA. By waiting until 36 years of service credit and the four highest years being that of a superintendent, the PERS pension payments in our example eventually surpass the career earnings for our hypothetical career leader.

The secret weapon for a high earning education leader is the 3 % compounding COLA. In our model, a superintendent might retire with an annual pension of roughly $225,000, but thanks to that 3% compounding 13th check, by the time that educator is 80 years old, their annual pension payout has grown to over $430,000 a year.

Here are the three big takeaways for future education leaders in Mississippi. One, education leadership is a high value executive career regardless of the industry you're comparing it to. By moving into leadership, your total package can exceed $12.75 million. Two, longevity is the multiplier. The PERS formula rewards those who stay. 36 years of service creates a significantly higher multiplier than 30 years of service as required by tiers four members. Three, the highest average salary is key. By finishing your career in high level administration, you lock in a pension that is worth millions on its own.

After our salary series ends, in future episodes, we're going to walk through various decisions that must be made and forms that must be completed as it relates to PERS members. Please 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.

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.