Teacher's 18-Year-Old Son Who Just Graduated From High School Makes $38 More An Hour Than Him
The discrepancy in the two men's salaries shows what is valued in society today.
Rifka Hayati | Getty Images Signature It’s no secret that teaching is not the highest-paying profession out there. One teacher saw this truth up close as he contrasted his own salary with his son’s. In a post to Reddit, he shared that his son just graduated from high school, and with limited work experience and no college degree, he's earning nearly $40 more than his dad.
With wage discrepancies like this, is it any wonder why teachers are leaving the profession at an alarming rate? According to 2025 statistics released by the National Education Association, teacher salaries are not keeping up with inflation despite efforts by unions. In fact, over the last decade, inflation combined with the cost of living and the economy has resulted in earnings dipping 5%. These numbers, sadly, have a direct impact on the national teacher shortage.
A teacher shared that his son, who just graduated high school, makes more money than he does.
The teacher explained that his son, who is 18 years old, “graduated high school a month ago.” He “has a job with a local roofing company in their solar panel install division,” he wrote. “For commercial jobs, he’s paid $63 an hour, $95 if it’s overtime,” he stated. “For residential jobs, he makes $25 [an] hour.”
Raze Solar | Unsplash
The teacher went on to say that his son usually makes $63 an hour. “About 70% of their jobs are commercial,” he said. “He’s currently on the apprentice waiting list for the local IBEW hall.”
In contrast, the teacher was in quite a different position with his career, despite having worked for much longer than his son. At 40, he has a master's degree and "12 years of teaching experience." Unlike his son, he only makes "$53,000 a year with [around] $70,000 in student debt load. My hourly rate is about $25 [an] hour."
All that is to say that when his son is doing commercial work alone, he makes a whopping $38 more per hour than his father. Even when the son is working one of the company’s residential jobs, which are the lowest paying, he is still making an equal amount to his father. This is all while his father has 12 years more experience and a master's degree. “This,” the teacher argued, “is one of [the] many reasons I think of when people talk about why public education is in shambles.”
Public school teachers are overworked, underpaid, and burned out.
As the anonymous teacher from this Reddit post pointed out, teachers are far from being overpaid. In fact, many would argue that it’s a passion for the work, not the money, that keeps teachers going into the profession.
According to the National Education Association, the average starting teacher salary for the 2023-2024 school year was an abysmal $46,526. What's shocking, however, was that dollar amount marked a 4.4% increase, the largest in 15 years, yet it’s still $3,728 below 2008–2009 levels.
A 2024 nationwide survey by RAND found that the teacher exodus, combined with stagnant salaries and the increased workload caused by the shortages, has created a paradoxical situation whereby the teachers who remain in the profession are hanging on by a thread because of the dwindling numbers of new teachers entering the profession. The only true solution is to increase pay, but that doesn't seem to be on the table.
As the nonprofit Teachers Task Force noted, "Low salaries make it harder to attract new teachers and retain those already in the profession. When college graduates see their peers offered better salaries and a better lifestyle in other professions, it can become difficult to convince them to pursue teaching."
As demonstrated by this teacher and his son, a college degree isn’t always necessary to make a good living.
Denis Bukhlaev | Shutterstock
Society typically equates higher education with higher pay. However, that isn’t true in all cases. A 2021 study from Georgetown University found that it is possible to graduate from high school and still make as much money or more money over the course of your lifetime than someone with a college degree.
In an article for Harvard Business Review, recruiting expert Jeff Mazur explained, "In today’s hiring landscape, you don’t need to count yourself out of the running if you don’t have a degree. What’s more important is to show that you’re driven, passionate, and possess the skills that the workforce needs."
A 2023 study conducted by The Gates Foundation found that the value of a college degree as perceived by Americans has declined, while the value of job training and professional licensing programs has gone up. Basically, on the job training and certifications are becoming more valuable and more cost effective than what used to be the standard college to high paying profession pipeline. The simple fact is, college is becoming unaffordable to most people, and without the guarantee of a cushy salary, most high school grads aren't willing to set themselves up for a lifetime of debt just to earn less than their trade school graduate peers.
While college degrees used to be automatic tickets to better jobs with more money, that is no longer universally true. In many situations, those who graduated with a high school diploma and nothing more have the chance to make just as much, if not more, than those who pursued higher education, especially as demand for skilled laborers increases.
Sadly, the other benefits of pursuing higher education, such as critical thinking and social and emotional growth, have taken a backseat to earning potential. But really, what's the alternative? Live an enriched life that you can't afford, or start working straight out of high school and earn more than your parents?
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
