Pittsburgh Public Schools spent at least $303 million on salaries and other types of compensation, such as overtime, in the 2020-21 school year.
The 4,676 salaried and non-salaried employees earned a median of about $63,000. Of these employees, 830 earned more than $100,000.
Aggregate data provided by the district revealed gender and racial wage gaps among the workforce. White employees earned about $18,000 more than black employees on average, and men earned about $7,000 more than women on average. White men earned an average of $25,000 more per year than black women.
The largest contingent of the workforce — teachers — is overwhelmingly white, with salaries set according to a pay schedule negotiated between the district and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.
Who was paid how much?
The former superintendent was joined on the district’s highest-paid list by several maintenance department employees, including various foremen and several electricians.
Former Superintendent Anthony Hamlet won $229,473. Maintenance department administrator Kyle Vogt was the second highest paid employee at $221,994.
Overtime pay contributed significantly to maintenance department employees who are in the top 25. The district paid $9.5 million in overtime and bonuses in 2020-21.
There were about 250 substitute teachers last year earning an average of $9,000 and about 50 full-time substitute teachers earning an average of about $26,000. The lack of substitute teachers has become a national problem during the pandemic.
Find out how much your school’s teachers, administrators, and staff earned in 2020-21. Type the name of the school in the search field below.
Editor’s note: The district provided two sets of data, one set for the 2021 calendar year and one set for the 2020-2021 school year. All data above was based on the 2020-2021 school year. All data below is based on calendar year 2021 data. PublicSource chose to use both data sets in different analyzes because the school year data contained more accurate information about the amount paid by district to hourly and overtime employees. The calendar year data contained more comprehensive information on staff job titles and where they lived and worked.
Most teachers earned between $90,000 and $110,000
The district employed approximately 1,850 K-12 teachers in 2021:
- 86% of teachers were white
- 70% identified as female
- 62% earned between $90,000 and $120,000 per year.
The neighborhood students are 69% students of color and mostly low-income.
Most teachers (58%) had been in the district since at least 2010. According to the pay scale negotiated by the union, it takes about 11 years to start earning the maximum base salary ($99,000).
Other income is more spread out. For example, PPS employed about 500 classroom assistants, 55% of whom are black, and almost all of them earned between $27,000 and $50,000.
Where do PPS teachers live?
PPS teachers are allowed to live out of town, unlike PPS paraprofessionals who argued for a change in their contract on this point.
Map of teachers’ places of residence:
At least 58% of teachers live outside the city of Pittsburgh. At least 15% live in cities. And for 27% of teachers, it’s not clear from their postal code.
the most popular zip codes for teachers to live out of town are the Ross Township area, Allison Park, the Pleasant Hills area, Coraopolis, and Bethel Park.
Staff diversity varies widely across the district.
For example, five schools in the district have majority black staff that closely reflect the district’s diversity, including Westinghouse Academy, Lincoln K-5, Faison K-5, Weil K-5, and Miller K-5. In contrast, four schools have less than 10% black staff, including Phillips K-5, South Brook 6-8, Banksville K-5 and Carmalt K-8.
Which schools have the lowest paid (i.e. least experienced) teachers?
Teachers in some schools earn much less because they are new teachers. Schiller teachers, for example, earned a median salary of $63,000 a year, the lowest in the district. Manchester K-8, Montessori K-5, Spring Hill K-5, Sterret 6-8, Westinghouse 6-12, Allegheny 6-8, King 6-8, Banksville K-5 and University Prep at Milliones had the highest salaries down in the neighborhood outside of Schiller.
Roosevelt K-5 teachers, the most experienced staff at a school that serves the general population, have an average of 21 years of experience, about three times as much as the least experienced staff at University Prep at Milliones.
Less than 5% of teachers left the district in 2021. The district administration, on the other hand, experienced an exodus in 2021. Two-thirds of the 63 employees who worked in the administration building left in 2021, and more than 85% of the 28 special education administrators no longer work in the district.
About data
The original data provided by PPS for the 2021 calendar year did not include the amount of hourly workers or substitute teachers and only provided half a year of overtime and bonus information. PublicSource negotiated with PPS to provide this additional information, but the district provided it for the 2020-2021 school year instead of the calendar year. The school year officially runs from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.
Because the time periods are different, about 3% of PPS employees are on the new list but not the other. For these employees, we know exactly how much money they earned during the school year, but we don’t know their job title or what department they work in. We have asked the District Open Archives Manager to provide this additional information, but have not received a response.
Oliver Morrison is PublicSource’s K-12 education reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ORMorrison.
This story has been verified by Charlie Wolfson.
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