The Average Rate a Piano Teacher Earns
Many piano teachers work from home, though that's not always the case. Sometimes they find employment in schools or by contracting through music stores. When self-employed, however, piano teachers set their own rates. What that rate is, and what rate a piano teacher can expect to make in an institution, depend on credentials, geography and additional musical services the piano teacher is offering.
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Typical Rate
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A self-employed piano teacher might make as little as $15 an hour for a half-hour lesson. The Piano Education website says piano teacher rates can be as high as $50 per half hour. The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics shows post-secondary music teachers made a median yearly salary of $62,040 as of May 2010. The yearly earnings for piano teachers in the bottom 10 percent of earning in the field was $33,170 a year. Piano teachers with earnings in the top 10 percent earned $120,800 per year, according to 2010 figures.
Top-Paying Industries
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Performing arts companies are the top industry for those teaching post-secondary music such as piano. The mean annual salary for piano teachers at performing arts companies as of May 2010 was $74,090 a year. The next highest industry for piano teachers were junior colleges at $72,990. Piano teachers at colleges and universities were third at $71,250 a year. Last were piano teachers at technical and trade schools at a much lower $51,500 annually.
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Highest- and Lowest-Paying States
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As of November 2011, Illinois was the top-paying state for a piano teacher. Pay there was $51,041 a year. Piano teachers in Ohio are next at $46,168, followed by those working in North Carolina at $42,751. In May 2010, New York was the top state for music teachers in post-secondary schools, offering up to $99,630. The lowest-paying states for a piano teacher were, as of November 2011, Tennessee at $34,687 and Arizona at $32,243. At $78,340 a year, New Jersey was the state that paid post-secondary piano or music teachers.
Metropolitan Areas
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As of 2010, post-secondary piano teachers working in Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Florida area made as much as $111,660 a year. The metropolitan areas of New York-White Plains, New York, and the Wayne, New Jersey, area are next best for piano teacher salaries, at $107,970. Salaries there were almost identical for piano teachers in the San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood, California, where they made up to $107,780. The lowest metropolitan area pay for piano teachers, nationally, was in Fresno, California, at $93,440 per year.
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