In Assessing the Compensation of Public-School Teachers, Jason Richwine and Andrew Biggs conclude that “public-school teacher salaries are comparable to those paid to similarly skilled private sector workers, but that more generous fringe benefits for public-school teachers, including greater job security, make total compensation 52 percent greater than fair market levels, equivalent to more than $120 billion overcharged to taxpayers each year.”
Average Benefits as a Percentage of Wages, Adjusted Data (Richwine and Biggs, p. 18)
Public school teachers | Private workers | |
Total benefits | 100.8% | 43.5% |
Paid leave | 6.6% | 11.4% |
Insurance plans | 16.1% | 13.3% |
Retirement and savings | 32.0% | 6.2% |
Retiree health care | 9.9% | 1.3% |
Legally required benefits | 7.4% | 11.3% |
Work-year leave | 28.8% | 0.0% |