MAT Degree Salary

There is no reliable gauge for teachers’ salaries because the variance between states is so big.  A teacher working in Alaska or Mississippi may be paid as much as 50% less than one working in a suburban Connecticut district.  That makes averages a little misleading, but it’s the best we have to work with for purposes of a brief overview.  What we do know is that completion of a Master of Arts in Teaching is a major step towards maximizing the teaching salary that is available in your area.  Teachers with a master’s degree get paid more than those who were credentialed with a bachelor’s degree.  Teachers who work in high schools get paid more than teachers in elementary or middle schools.  And teachers who are licensed as mathematics or science instructors generally get paid more than their peers.

Most districts have several categories that impact salary schedules.  They will have a set of figures for teaches with a bachelor’s degree, with a bachelor’s plus fifteen additional credit hours, and for a bachelor’s plus thirty additional credit hours.  The same applies to the master’s degree category, graduated by additional study.  Presumably that study is devoted to developing specialization in one of the STEM areas (Science, Math, Engineering, Math) or in special education services.  There is also a formula for increasing pay based on years of experience.  In some districts, the employees with a provisional credential may be paid less than those with a standard five year license.

The data displayed below was assembled with an earnest attempt to provide median salary ranges for teachers with several years’ experience and with adjustments for the difference between elementary and secondary salaries.  In some cases, we extrapolated from “average” school districts when statewide data wasn’t available.  But the goal is to illustrate, across a range of teaching environments, the difference that an MAT can make.

Median Salaries for Teachers with Bachelor’s Degrees and Master’s Degrees

Hawaii
Bachelor’s Degree: $44,452
Master’s Degree: $48, 008

Florida
Bachelor’s Degree: $43,745
Master’s Degree: $51,064

Tennessee
Bachelor’s Degree: $41,205
Master’s Degree: $45,311

Louisiana
Bachelor’s Degree: $43,583
Master’s Degree: $44,483

New Jersey
Bachelor’s Degree: $53,974
Master’s Degree: $61,040

New Hampshire
Bachelor’s Degree:  $50,729
Master’s Degree:   $57,343

Illinois
Bachelor’s Degree: $43,374
Master’s Degree: $48,091

Washington
Bachelor’s Degree: $39,831
Master’s Degree: $48,994

North Carolina
Bachelor’s Degree: $42,240
Master’s Degree: $46,460

Minnesota
Bachelor’s Degree: $40,857
Master’s Degree: $46,666