Teachers’ lot not so bad, comparatively

While teacher salaries climbed past inflation rates for the past decade, chief executive officers in the S&P 500 stumbled. Their average compensation fell to $8.2 million in 2008, down from $14.6 million in 2000, according to data from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University.

The 1990s were kinder, however — average compensation in 1992 was $3 million.

Most of the Washington region’s teachers saw their salaries grow by more than 40 percent, to averages in the mid-$70,000s, thanks partly to booming local economies and Maryland’s strong unions. The Consumer Price Index over that period grew by about 34 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Starting police salaries jumped by 32 percent in Fairfax County to $44,853, and by 47 percent in Montgomery to $46,972. Adjusted for inflation, however, Fairfax police saw a slight downgrade in their buying power, while their peers across the Potomac inched up.

Workers in the construction sector saw weekly wages grow by about 24 percent to $852 per week in 2010, or $44,300 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about $58 less per week than they made in 2000, after adjusting for inflation.

The Washington area’s wealth of federal employees joined teachers in the boom times — a worker with a master’s degree and five years experience makes $58,511 this year, up from $40,017 (about $53,000, with inflation) in 2000.

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