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Sunday, May 16, 2010

NorthJersey.com: A hot spot for higher teacher earnings

NorthJersey.com: A hot spot for higher teacher earnings

Half of the teachers in New Jersey who earned more than $100,000 work in Bergen and Passaic counties.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITERS
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More than 1,800 New Jersey public school teachers have broken the six-figure salary barrier, and half of them work in schools in Bergen and Passaic counties.
A quarter of teachers in Hackensack, Teaneck and Carlstadt and a third of those at the regional high school in East Rutherford earned six figures for the 2008-09 school year, according to data provided by the state.
The city of Passaic had 115 teachers with salaries above $100,000, the highest number of any district in the state. Hackensack had 98, Teaneck 93, Wayne 81, and in Ridgewood, 71 teachers were above the $100,000 mark.
Overall, the 1,847 teachers whose salaries were above $100,000 made up just 1.6 percent of the state's 116,000 public school teachers. The majority of teachers earned between $40,000 and $60,000, according to the data, the most recent available.
The median salary for teachers across the state was $57,467; it was higher in Bergen County, at $61,096, and lower in Passaic County, at $56,350.
Those are reasonable wages that you can try to support a family on, but they are not exorbitant wages," said Steve Baker, spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association.