LPN/LVN salary vs Teachers salary

Golden_RN, MSN · Apr 9, 2019

I think the reason why teachers get more PR is because most are part of unions and many LVNs are not. Everyone in the public has experience with teachers, and LVNs are only appreciated when members of the public have to experience LTC or other healthcare.

The public many times don't even know the difference between LVN and RN so I wouldn't worry too much about what they think about nurses' salaries.

In defense of teachers, I will say that many of them make less than stellar salaries with both a masters degree and teaching credential, so several years of college/training.

HazelLPN, LPN · Apr 30, 2019

On ‎4‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 12:49 AM, TDUnewLPN said:
I don’t want this to come off the wrong way, but I know it usually ruffles a few feathers when I speak on this topic. Let me start by saying I admire and appreciate teachers. This topic is not meant to discredit them in any way whatsoever. I just take issue with the fact that while society believes that all nurses make a lot of money, but think teachers don’t make enough money, when on average, teachers make more than LPN/LVNs. I don’t know if I am the only one who that bothers, but it really bothers me a lot. Not the fact that they make more, but the fact that everyone thinks they’re poor and that we make the big bucks. Am I the only one who feels this way?
https://www.gobankingrates.com/making-money/jobs/average-teacher-salary-by-state/#52

I have a challenge with your statement that"everyone thinks (teachers) are poor but we (LPNs) make big bucks."

Considering many people laugh that LPN stands for "Lesser Paid Nurse"...I think that your assessment that everyone thinks that LPNs make big bucks is mistaken. Many people don't even know what an LPN is. I personally believe that most fair minded people agree that teachers and nurses are hard working professionals who are underpaid.

You can't compare a teacher to an LPN. It would be better to compare teachers to an RN as educational requirements are more similar.

After I retired from critical care nursing, I came out of retirement to work as a substitute assistant school nurse in the public schools. As an LPN, I couldn't serve as the actual school nurse...they were BSN educated RNs who also held a state license from the department of education to work as a school RN. They were on the same pay scale as the teachers and had their own bargaining unit within the teachers union. School RNs work VERY hard and earn every penny. As an LPN assistant school nurse, my pay was so low that I considered myself to be a volunteer. However, I didn't do it for the money. I did it because I still loved nursing but was no longer physically able to work in critical care.

If you want to make a lot of money as a nurse, then the first thing you need to do is to find a bridge program and get your RN. The highest paid nurses are APNs of course...with CRNAs probably making the most.

Best to you,

Mrs. H.

Divine-LPN,BSN · May 9, 2019

Hello, thankfully I have had the opportunity to be a teacher and a nurse. I worked in a several school counties throughout the state where I lived. I enjoyed the profession. It seems that most people complain about the salary of teachers. I thought that salary for my state - Wisconsin- was decent. I felt that my pay was good and it was equally satisfying as the LPN pay. I suppose that other factors must be taken into consideration when comparing the two professions like personal preference, education level, household size in ratio to income and which state a person lives in. In the end it all depends on the preferences of each individual. I feel that the pay is good for both but someone else may completely disagree even if we have the same needs, household size, and education level, etc.

Warmly,

Divine-LPN,BSN

Purple036, LVN · Jun 20, 2019

I am a school nurse with my LVN license. I am able to work in a school due to my health supervisor being an RN. As for the pay, I am paid less than the teachers. If you have your RN license you are paid equivalent to the teachers (depending on experience you will get more). Even though I am paid less than teachers I still love my job and appreciate caring for the kiddos, staff and parents.

TDUnewLPN · Nov 8, 2022

Thank you for your honesty. Most teachers I know are paid close to or more than many RNs I know.

DeRob210 · Jan 4, 2023

That probably depends on someone individually.

I made $99k last year as an LPN.

I made $90k the year before. If you accept low then that's exactly what they'll give you!

TDUnewLPN · Jan 4, 2023

I don’t usually accept a low rate unless it’s a special case. As previously stated, most teachers that I know make as much as RNs, if not more. Many make over $100k. I don’t know one personally who makes less that $85k, and she’s a new 3rd grade teacher. Also, remember they don’t work a full year.

DeRob210 · Jan 5, 2023

I read quite a few of the posts on the thread.

Several of them I am not too certain how accurate what a lot of people are quoting is. To be quite honest a lot of it seems like conjecture and people just talking and making up stats

Luckily teachers are government employees.

As such their salaries aren't something that needs to be speculated or guessed about. It's public information.

Myself likewise am a government employee. My salary can be literally googled by my first and last name. Same is true for most government employees.

I pulled the salary data for several different school districts in my city. I then pulled my own salary table. I then pulled the RN salary data for my employer.

I attached a table.

The salaries at the top are teacher salaries for a few different school districts.

Now I am going to go on a generality of what I know from previous experience. Teachers are considered state government employees. I was a state government employee in Texas before. From that experience I know that most state employees are able to retire at 20 years of service. You can stay longer but generally speaking most people don't.

So, we are going to look at the 20-year mark for each district:

SISD (which was the highest paying): A teacher w/ 20 yrs and a doctorate: $71,936.

SAISD: $57,879 @ 20 years.

NISD: $64,790 @ 20 years. $1500 added w/ Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate

SWISD: $65,172 @ 20 years.

Now, we are going to move on to the middle table which shows occupation 0620; Job series for LPN/LVN.

So, steps here aren't equal to years' experience exactly: below shows an example of how that works for LVNs.

Advancement from...Requires...

step 1 to step 252 weeks of creditable service in step 1

step 2 to step 352 weeks of creditable service in step 2

step 3 to step 452 weeks of creditable service in step 3

step 4 to step 5104 weeks of creditable service in step 4

step 5 to step 6104 weeks of creditable service in step 5

step 6 to step 7104 weeks of creditable service in step 6

step 7 to step 8156 weeks of creditable service in step 7

step 8 to step 9156 weeks of creditable service in step 8

step 9 to step 10156 weeks of creditable service in step 9

Thus, an LVN with the same 20 years' service would be at $77,926. (Now of course this is considering that the LVN has done a good job and advocated for themselves and made it to Grade GS-06.

Even if they are a 4 or 5. Pay would be $62,481 or 69,904 respectively.

This is a base salary. Without OT or differentials.

As for myself I am sitting at the $69,934 mark which just went up to $72,032 with the beginning of the year COLA increase. Once I get my next step increase in March, I expect it to be around $74,800(just a rough estimate give or take $50 or so) That's more than or at least equal to most teachers in my city with same number of years working.

We'll lastly look at the RNs. Now I'm only going to talk about grade 1 and 2.

That can be anywhere from $74,242 all the way out to $127,376. This depends on lots of factors. Degree level, certifications, years of experience, and even how well they write their proficiencies for the salary boarding process. It would be quite unusual for an experienced RN with a BSN to not get grade 2 which starts at $95,773.

Grades 3,4, and 5 are your nurse managers and higher-level nurse executives.

I usually make around $16,000 extra moonlighting which would bring me to around $92,000.

Teachers also don't get the entire 3 months off like most people think. They work a while after school is out getting things wrapped up. Administrative things and paperwork. They also come back about a month early for the same reason. They do get Spring break, holiday breaks etc. off.

However, the nurse who are government employees get all federal holidays either off or they get holiday pay (which is double pay). We aren't lucky enough to get 2 week and 1 week breaks but we do also get pretty good leave package. I get 20 days off per year. Plus I can carry over 30 if I choose to. I always keep 30 days on the books and just take the 20 I accrue. In addition to that I get 13 days of sick leave. You can carry over unlimited sick leave. I try to carry over at least 25 days of sick leave.

RNs are a bit different. They get 26 days of annual leave.

Now I'll be honest my pay with my government position is on the lower side. I could make far more in the private sector. I would have to forgo my retirement though. Not a good idea.

I seen one post where an RN said her salary even with 15 to 20 hours of OT per week was only around $110k. If I were working the same amount of OT I would end up making $117k.

Again I say it is a matter of advocating for yourself. There are jobs in this same city that pay as low as $ 42k. There are also in the $70ks and some in the $80ks. A select few even get into $90ks for LVNs.

Unfortunately, some people get into one of these $42k positions and get complacent and never try to grow and improve.

I have been the opposite of that. In my first 3 years as an LPN, I worked at over 6 different locations. I took every opportunity to learn and grow. This gave me varied experience and improved my resume. I took each opportunity to make more money. Now I am not saying money is everything, but if you don't go for more money then you aren't ever going to progress in your career to earn more money.

HazelLPN, LPN · Feb 28, 2023

DeRob210 said:

I read quite a few of the posts on the thread.

Several of them I am not too certain how accurate what a lot of people are quoting is. To be quite honest a lot of it seems like conjecture and people just talking and making up stats

Luckily teachers are government employees.

As such their salaries aren't something that needs to be speculated or guessed about. It's public information.

Myself likewise am a government employee. My salary can be literally googled by my first and last name. Same is true for most government employees.

I pulled the salary data for several different school districts in my city. I then pulled my own salary table. I then pulled the RN salary data for my employer.

I attached a table.

The salaries at the top are teacher salaries for a few different school districts.

Now I am going to go on a generality of what I know from previous experience. Teachers are considered state government employees. I was a state government employee in Texas before. From that experience I know that most state employees are able to retire at 20 years of service. You can stay longer but generally speaking most people don't.

So, we are going to look at the 20-year mark for each district:

SISD (which was the highest paying): A teacher w/ 20 yrs and a doctorate: $71,936.

SAISD: $57,879 @ 20 years.

NISD: $64,790 @ 20 years. $1500 added w/ Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate

SWISD: $65,172 @ 20 years.

Now, we are going to move on to the middle table which shows occupation 0620; Job series for LPN/LVN.

So, steps here aren't equal to years' experience exactly: below shows an example of how that works for LVNs.

Advancement from...Requires...

step 1 to step 252 weeks of creditable service in step 1

step 2 to step 352 weeks of creditable service in step 2

step 3 to step 452 weeks of creditable service in step 3

step 4 to step 5104 weeks of creditable service in step 4

step 5 to step 6104 weeks of creditable service in step 5

step 6 to step 7104 weeks of creditable service in step 6

step 7 to step 8156 weeks of creditable service in step 7

step 8 to step 9156 weeks of creditable service in step 8

step 9 to step 10156 weeks of creditable service in step 9

Thus, an LVN with the same 20 years' service would be at $77,926. (Now of course this is considering that the LVN has done a good job and advocated for themselves and made it to Grade GS-06.

Even if they are a 4 or 5. Pay would be $62,481 or 69,904 respectively.

This is a base salary. Without OT or differentials.

As for myself I am sitting at the $69,934 mark which just went up to $72,032 with the beginning of the year COLA increase. Once I get my next step increase in March, I expect it to be around $74,800(just a rough estimate give or take $50 or so) That's more than or at least equal to most teachers in my city with same number of years working.

We'll lastly look at the RNs. Now I'm only going to talk about grade 1 and 2.

That can be anywhere from $74,242 all the way out to $127,376. This depends on lots of factors. Degree level, certifications, years of experience, and even how well they write their proficiencies for the salary boarding process. It would be quite unusual for an experienced RN with a BSN to not get grade 2 which starts at $95,773.

Grades 3,4, and 5 are your nurse managers and higher-level nurse executives.

I usually make around $16,000 extra moonlighting which would bring me to around $92,000.

Teachers also don't get the entire 3 months off like most people think. They work a while after school is out getting things wrapped up. Administrative things and paperwork. They also come back about a month early for the same reason. They do get Spring break, holiday breaks etc. off.

However, the nurse who are government employees get all federal holidays either off or they get holiday pay (which is double pay). We aren't lucky enough to get 2 week and 1 week breaks but we do also get pretty good leave package. I get 20 days off per year. Plus I can carry over 30 if I choose to. I always keep 30 days on the books and just take the 20 I accrue. In addition to that I get 13 days of sick leave. You can carry over unlimited sick leave. I try to carry over at least 25 days of sick leave.

RNs are a bit different. They get 26 days of annual leave.

Now I'll be honest my pay with my government position is on the lower side. I could make far more in the private sector. I would have to forgo my retirement though. Not a good idea.

I seen one post where an RN said her salary even with 15 to 20 hours of OT per week was only around $110k. If I were working the same amount of OT I would end up making $117k.

Again I say it is a matter of advocating for yourself. There are jobs in this same city that pay as low as $ 42k. There are also in the $70ks and some in the $80ks. A select few even get into $90ks for LVNs.

Unfortunately, some people get into one of these $42k positions and get complacent and never try to grow and improve.

I have been the opposite of that. In my first 3 years as an LPN, I worked at over 6 different locations. I took every opportunity to learn and grow. This gave me varied experience and improved my resume. I took each opportunity to make more money. Now I am not saying money is everything, but if you don't go for more money then you aren't ever going to progress in your career to earn more money.

Texas is a right to work for less state and unions that represent teachers and school nurses have little to no power.

In the district where I recently served as a substitute assistant school nurse, a teacher with a PhD and 20 years of experience makes over $100K and school RNs are on the same pay schedule as the teachers. The LPNs in the district are considered classified employees and make an hourly wage. When I was an LPN in the ICU at a large teaching hospital I made much more money, but it was much less than my RN coworkers.

DeRob210 · Mar 1, 2023

HazelLPN said:

Texas is a right to work for less state and unions that represent teachers and school nurses have little to no power.

In the district where I recently served as a substitute assistant school nurse, a teacher with a PhD and 20 years of experience makes over $100K and school RNs are on the same pay schedule as the teachers. The LPNs in the district are considered classified employees and make an hourly wage. When I was an LPN in the ICU at a large teaching hospital I made much more money, but it was much less than my RN coworkers.

It's difficult to speak on it because everything you said was very vague. That may have or may not have been on purpose.

You used terms like district I worked in without naming the district. ICU at a large teaching hospital could be anywhere.

Obviously an LPN is going to make less than an RN.

If we knew the district and city that information could be looked up. The amount made at the teaching hospital is a bit more difficult to look up because it's likely a private facility. However you can usually get a rough idea from certain websites but not anything exact.

The information I quoted is directly from the school district website. The charts are sourced from the district website.

The pay scale for nurses are directly from federal agency sites.

None of what I posted is conjecture. It's straight from the source information that anyone can look up.

I don't mind quoting my salary information because I make an amount that I'm happy with and can be proud of.

HazelLPN, LPN · Mar 5, 2023

DeRob210 said:

It's difficult to speak on it because everything you said was very vague. That may have or may not have been on purpose.

You used terms like district I worked in without naming the district. ICU at a large teaching hospital could be anywhere.

Obviously an LPN is going to make less than an RN.

If we knew the district and city that information could be looked up. The amount made at the teaching hospital is a bit more difficult to look up because it's likely a private facility. However you can usually get a rough idea from certain websites but not anything exact.

The information I quoted is directly from the school district website. The charts are sourced from the district website.

The pay scale for nurses are directly from federal agency sites.

None of what I posted is conjecture. It's straight from the source information that anyone can look up.

I don't mind quoting my salary information because I make an amount that I'm happy with and can be proud of.

It seems you missed the main point of my post which was that teachers and school nurses who work in states where they have the right to collectively bargain make significantly more money than in states where they do not. Texas is a state where they do not...and I live in a state where they do.