Who makes more: teachers or firefighters? In most places teachers have higher average wages but in some states the firefighters come out ahead. Nationally elementary teachers average $55,270 and firefighters average $47,720. In general teachers make more than firefighters nationally. But some states thats not the case.
I pulled the average wage numbers for firefighters from the May 2011 State Cross-Industry estimates at the BLS Occupational Employment Statistics pages. The teachers salary figures are from the Teachers Portal.
Heres all the data showing the average annual wages for teachers versus firefighters :
| teachers | firefighters | |
| Alabama | $47,803 | $39,200 |
| Alaska | $62,918 | $50,910 |
| Arizona | $47,553 | $44,010 |
| Arkansas | $46,500 | $34,810 |
| California | $67,871 | $71,030 |
| Colorado | $49,228 | $53,900 |
| Connecticut | $69,165 | $55,740 |
| Delaware | $57,934 | $45,490 |
| Florida | $45,732 | $50,770 |
| Georgia | $52,815 | $37,110 |
| Hawaii | $55,063 | $53,030 |
| Idaho | $47,416 | $34,260 |
| Illinois | $64,509 | $47,300 |
| Indiana | $50,801 | $45,040 |
| Iowa | $49,844 | $38,700 |
| Kansas | $46,598 | $39,750 |
| Kentucky | $48,908 | $32,670 |
| Louisiana | $49,006 | $31,670 |
| Maine | $47,182 | $31,720 |
| Maryland | $63,960 | $57,220 |
| Massachusetts | $70,752 | $49,240 |
| Michigan | $63,940 | $44,430 |
| Minnesota | $53,680 | $33,760 |
| Mississippi | $41,975 | $31,120 |
| Missouri | $45,321 | $41,740 |
| Montana | $47,132 | $41,520 |
| Nebraska | $47,368 | $41,900 |
| Nevada | $53,023 | $57,830 |
| New Hampshire | $52,792 | $43,080 |
| New Jersey | $66,612 | $70,160 |
| New Mexico | $46,888 | $35,280 |
| New York | $72,708 | $61,240 |
| North Carolina | $46,605 | $31,540 |
| North Dakota | $44,807 | $46,610 |
| Ohio | $56,715 | $42,550 |
| Oklahoma | $44,343 | $36,780 |
| Oregon | $56,503 | $57,810 |
| Pennsylvania | $60,760 | $48,920 |
| Rhode Island | $60,923 | $48,340 |
| South Carolina | $47,050 | $32,920 |
| South Dakota | $39,850 | $39,060 |
| Tennessee | $45,891 | $36,950 |
| Texas | $48,638 | $45,530 |
| Utah | $47,033 | $29,290 |
| Vermont | $50,141 | $35,550 |
| Virginia | $48,761 | $47,810 |
| Washington | $52,926 | $63,040 |
| West Virginia | $44,260 | $33,870 |
| Wisconsin | $54,195 | $31,040 |
| Wyoming | $56,100 | $49,780 |
I highlighted the states where firefighters make more.
I'm sure theres a ton of reasons that wages differ between the occupations across states. Demographics will play a role. Its possible some states have a lot of younger or older people in one occupation who earn low or high wages based on experience. Work hours and conditions may vary as well. We don't know if teachers in a given states work 160 days or 180 and if they have average class sizes of 18 kids or 30 kids. Same kind of thing goes for firefighters who may work more or longer hours and may have higher or lower staffing levels.
OK now lets look at it another taking the ratio of teacher wages / firefighter wages :
| T / F | |
| Washington | 0.840 |
| Florida | 0.901 |
| Colorado | 0.913 |
| Nevada | 0.917 |
| New Jersey | 0.949 |
| California | 0.956 |
| North Dakota | 0.961 |
| Oregon | 0.977 |
| Virginia | 1.020 |
| South Dakota | 1.020 |
| Hawaii | 1.038 |
| Texas | 1.068 |
| Arizona | 1.081 |
| Missouri | 1.086 |
| Maryland | 1.118 |
| Wyoming | 1.127 |
| Indiana | 1.128 |
| Nebraska | 1.131 |
| Montana | 1.135 |
| Kansas | 1.172 |
| New York | 1.187 |
| Oklahoma | 1.206 |
| Alabama | 1.219 |
| New Hampshire | 1.225 |
| Alaska | 1.236 |
| Connecticut | 1.241 |
| Tennessee | 1.242 |
| Pennsylvania | 1.242 |
| Rhode Island | 1.260 |
| Delaware | 1.274 |
| Iowa | 1.288 |
| West Virginia | 1.307 |
| New Mexico | 1.329 |
| Ohio | 1.333 |
| Arkansas | 1.336 |
| Mississippi | 1.349 |
| Illinois | 1.364 |
| Idaho | 1.384 |
| Vermont | 1.410 |
| Georgia | 1.423 |
| South Carolina | 1.429 |
| Massachusetts | 1.437 |
| Michigan | 1.439 |
| North Carolina | 1.478 |
| Maine | 1.487 |
| Kentucky | 1.497 |
| Louisiana | 1.547 |
| Minnesota | 1.590 |
| Utah | 1.606 |
| Wisconsin | 1.746 |
You can see there that theres a huge disparity across the states. At one end in Washington state the teachers make about 84% of what firefighters do and in Wisconsin they make 174%.
Who should make more? I don't know. I guess it depends on if you want your kids to be stupid or if you want your house to burn down.
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