Career Advice

School Salaries: Janitors Making More Than Teachers

By Liana Loewus — November 09, 2010 1 min read
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Yoav Gonen at The New York Post has the scoop on school janitors’ salaries. “Twenty public-school janitors rake in more than $140,000 a year—far more than the teachers whose classrooms get tidied up, records show,” he writes.

Head custodians can earn up to $106,329 in base salary—$6,000 more than New York City teachers’ max salary—but can supplement their income by filling in at other schools or helping out on nights and weekends, explains Gonen.

However, Ms. Eyre at NYC Educator defends custodians, saying they “are in charge of keeping complicated systems running smoothly around the clock.” The Post has it backwards, she asserts:

Don't get me wrong. I do think it's sort of crazy that custodial engineer pay maxes out at higher than the max pay for teachers. And maybe the overtime is a little out of control. But the answer is to pay teachers more, not pay custodial engineers less.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.