What’s in a name? According to the results of the 2008 School Library Journal Job Satisfaction Survey, at least $10,000. As seen in the chart, the average salary for “teacher librarians” in the survey was $10,000 more than the average for “library media specialists” and $15,000 higher than “school librarians.”
While it would be nice to be able to attribute some sort of causal relationship between the title and the salary, I am pretty certain that it is much more correlative in its nature. California, for example, uses the teacher librarian title and also has some areas with very high costs of living that probably lead to higher salaries. Still, wouldn’t it be nice to speculate just a bit?
What is your title, and do you think it matters in how you are perceived (and paid)?
March 1st, 2009 at 8:35 am
I found this chart to be quite interesting. It does reflect some of the same things we find in Australia. However, from a school point of view I was a bit surprised. Here in Australia we are teacher librarians, and as such are paid exactly the same as teachers – dependent on the number of years service. We also are ranked the same as other teachers for promotions positions – so a Head of Library or similar would be paid the same as a Head of English, or Science etc. We sometimes have Librarians and Library Technicians in our schools too. They are not qualified teachers as well as qualified information professionals, so their salaries are lower.
June 28th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
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July 11th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I am a division head with 30 plus years of experience, and am a “librarian”. My sister in law is a teacher and a good friend is a school media specialist – they both make nearly 30 thousand a year more than I.
What’s in a title? Bucks, obviously.