We developed this tool in the hopes of helping current and prospective teachers to identify what states and/or counties they can live in and have the quality of life they want. To do this, we have collected and visualized data based on teaching salaries for each county across all 50 states, the living wages for each county across all 50 states, and the average change in teaching salaries vs CPI across all 50 states.
To use this tool, click on the "Configure Maps" button and select your desired view of the US state map. You can view it based on average teaching salary which will allow you to see, at a glance, what your salary range might be in a given state. You can also view it based on living wage which will show you how much you need to make, in general, to live in that state. If you choose to view it based on the difference between salary and living wage, you will see how much you will make relative to the necessary living wage.
In the "Configure Maps" button you can also select your desired view of the county maps, which show up each time you select an individual state. The county maps only show the difference between salary and living wage and the view options allow you to select whether you are providing for just yourself, one child, or two children. The counties will then display in either blue or red, depending on affordability. If they heat map in blue, that means they are not affordable to live in based on just one teacher's salary in that county. If they heat map in red, that means they are affordable to live in based on just one teacher's salary in that county. You may click on any county to see detailed information.
When you click on an individual state, you will also see a graph displaying the changes between the Average Teacher salary in that state versus the CPI for 2013-2017. The CPI is the consumer price index, which measures changes in the cost of a fixed basket of consumer goods between years. An increase in CPI means that consumers are paying more for standard goods, while a decrease in CPI means a consumer is paying less. More about how to use the cpi can be found from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Salaries were collected from the yearly digests of the National Center for Education. Living wage data was collected from MIT's Living Wage Calculator . CPI data is courtesy of the St. Louis Federal Reserve. We hope you find this tool helpful. Happy teaching!