Overall, should teacher salaries in the US be increased?

[bedstuy]

I don't think it makes sense to pay teachers more on average.

But, you have to factor in the whole picture.  If someone just has a bachelor's degree, they get the summer off and a large amount of vacation time, pretty normal and decent hours, they get good benefits and tenure, that all factors in.  So, it's really a range.  For a teacher in South Dakota fresh out of school, $40k might be perfectly reasonable.  For an experienced teacher in New Jersey who has a masters in chemistry, is on a professional development committee and coaches football, $100k might be reasonable.  But, this idea that we should increase all teacher salaries by 50%, that's bonkers.

[bedstuy]

I don't think it makes sense to pay teachers more on average.

But, you have to factor in the whole picture.  If someone just has a bachelor's degree, they get the summer off and a large amount of vacation time, pretty normal and decent hours, they get good benefits and tenure, that all factors in.  So, it's really a range.  For a teacher in South Dakota fresh out of school, $40k might be perfectly reasonable.  For an experienced teacher in New Jersey who has a masters in chemistry, is on a professional development committee and coaches football, $100k might be reasonable.  But, this idea that we should increase all teacher salaries by 50%, that's bonkers.

At school from 7am to at least 4pm, and perhaps later if they coach or sponsor any extracurricular activities or clubs. And then they get to go home and grade papers and prepare lessons. Teachers don't work any less than anyone else and they work more than a lot of people in other professions.

This article says teachers work an average of 53 hours per week during the school year.  Factoring in the amount of vacation time a teacher gets, that's not really on par with higher paid educated professionals like doctors and lawyers.  Medical residents routinely work 70-80 hours a week.  Bankers can work 100 hours a week.  Those professions also have less time off and generally more work related stress. 

Obviously, teachers work hard and many of them are underpaid.  I'm just saying, you can't say every school teacher should make 6 figures or that it's a singularly difficult job.