Top 5 Best-Paid Teaching Positions

Curious to see what the best-paid teaching positions are? Teachers are not particularly renowned for their high paying jobs, but this does not mean that people who choose this career path cannot make a decent living. The amount of money you can receive from education depends on numerous variables: your exact field of specialty, the type of school you teach in, experience in education, qualification and credentials, and even the state where you choose to work.

Ideally, we should all choose a career we are passionate about and it certainly takes a lot of passion to become an educator. Patience, willpower, and great people skills are all required of a good teacher. But the long hours and relatively small wages can sometime become disheartening. Nonetheless, teachers have several options of landing a better paying job.

Following, we would like to present you with a list we have compiled of the 5 best paid teaching positions in the US. The positions were ranked according to the average annual pay. We have also mentioned other indicators, such as the best paying state and the amount of money made by the top 10% earners in the field. The figures used in the making of the countdown were taken from the statistics issued by the US Bureau of Labor.

All teaching positions in our countdown belong to teachers from postsecondary education institutions, indicating that those who want to earn a higher income in this field have to further their studies well beyond the average teacher’s college. Special credentials and qualifications are typically required for those wishing to teach in a postsecondary school, which might also explain why these professionals are better paid than high school teachers, for example. So, while you will be making more money as a university teacher, it might take some time until you will be able to.

Curious to see what other teaching positions have made the countdown? Let’s take a look at the countdown.

No.5 Best-Paid Teaching Position: Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences teachers, postsecondary


Average Annual Pay: $91,350

Top 10% Earn: $152,270

Best-paying state: New York

No.4 Best-Paid Teaching Position: Economics teacher, postsecondary


Average Annual Pay: $94,450

Top 10% Earn: $153,640

Best-paying state: Rhode Island

No.3 Best-Paid Teaching Position: Engineering teachers, postsecondary


Average Annual Pay: $97,260

Top 10% Earn: $153,030

Best-paying state: Pennsylvania

No.2 Best-Paid Teaching Position: Health specialties teachers, postsecondary


Average Annual Pay: $99,210

Top 10% Earn: $187,199

Best-paying state: New Mexico

No.1 Best-Paid Teaching Position: Law teachers, postsecondary


Average Annual Pay: $108,760

Top 10% Earn: $187,199

Best-paying state: Tennessee
If you enjoyed our ranking of the best-paid teaching positions, check out our list of the most lucrative careers.