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The Average Salary of a Part-Time Teacher

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Pay for part-time teachers varies as widely as the great variety that exists among teachers in subject matter and the level at which they teach. Teachers who work part time might be paid per diem rather than a salary and could work one to four days a week. Salaries for part-time teachers are typically dependent on how much they work.

Teaching Preschool

Teaching salaries are typically lowest in preschool, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Preschool teachers earned an average annual salary of $31,420 in 2013, according to the BLS. The pro-rated daily wage for that annual salary is $121 per day. Annual earnings would be $6,292 for a one-day-a-week work schedule. A preschool teacher who worked two days a week would earn $12,584 a year, and $18,876 if she worked three days a week. At four days a week, the preschool teacher would earn $25,168 annually.

Kindergarten Through 12th Grade

Salaries in elementary, middle and secondary school are similar, according to the BLS. An elementary school teacher working one, two, three or four days a week would have annual earnings of $11,232, $22,462, $33,969 and $44,924, respectively. (Full-time middle school teachers, with an average salary of $56,630 in 2013, earned $310 per year more than elementary school teachers at $56,320.) Salaries for part-time secondary school teachers one-to-four days weekly would be $11,700, $23,400, $24,570 and $46,800 annually. (Secondary school teachers who worked full time earned an average of $58,620 a year.)

Specialization and Salary

In the post-secondary setting, salaries are dependent on teaching specialty. The BLS notes that post-secondary teachers in education, training and library occupations earned an average annual salary of $51,500 in 2013, while post-secondary law teachers earned $122,280 a year. In the first category, a part-time teacher would earn $10,296, $20,592, $30,888 or $41,184 respectively for working one, two, three or four days a week. Post-secondary law teachers, however, would earn much more. Annualized earnings for a post-secondary law teacher working one, two, three or four days a week would be $24,440, $48,880, $73,320 and $97,760. Salaries for other post-secondary teaching specialties would fall somewhere between those two extremes.

Higher Education

Part-time teachers in post-secondary schools such as colleges and universities are very common. In fact, they are so common that a study by Hart Associates for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) found that as of January 2010, 47 percent of all faculty were part-time or adjunct teachers. In community colleges, the figure was nearly 70 percent. The majority of these teachers had a full-time job outside of their teaching position. Most part-time faculty -- 46 percent, according to the AFT -- earned less than $15,000 a year specifically from their teaching activities, although 35 percent earned more; the AFT did not provide an actual figure for the higher earnings.

Prepping for a Teaching Career

Teachers must have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, according to the BLS. In addition, teachers in primary grades and high school must complete a teaching internship. Post-secondary teachers need a minimum of a master’s degree and in many schools are required to have a doctorate. In addition, some fields, such as nursing, require licensing. The BLS notes that demand for teachers is projected to vary from 12 percent for lower grades to 19 percent for post-secondary teachers from 2012 to 2022.

Writer

Beth Greenwood is an RN and has been a writer since 2010. She specializes in medical and health topics, as well as career articles about health care professions. Greenwood holds an Associate of Science in nursing from Shasta College.

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