How Much Do High School Principals Make

13 States Where Schoolhouse Principals Make Over $100K

Working in schoolhouse assistants pays off for these principals.

Beingness a loftier school principal can be a thankless job — yous juggle issues arising from teachers, parents and students, all while frequently dealing with severe budgetary constraints. On the plus side, y'all get to set the tone for the school and help shape children'due south minds. Despite this, principals are chronically underpaid for someone in the sort of administrative mail they occupy.

The boilerplate main makes about $88,000 a twelvemonth, which is most $40,000 more than in bacon than the national median. Even so, when y'all consider that the job typically requires a master's degree and usually means working lx hours a week or more than, that's still below what a similar position in the private sector could look. The boilerplate corporate operations officeholder, for example, pulls down over $93,000 a yr and doesn't ever need an MBA to exercise and so.

In some states, however, principals do make more. In 12 states and the District of Columbia, the boilerplate primary earns more than than $100,000 a year, according to career matching platform Sokanu, potentially indicating states where there's a larger commitment to public education. Here'due south a expect at all 13 of those states, including average teacher salary.

Click through to learn how much principals get paid, and how it compares to teachers' salaries.

13. Commune of Columbia

Average Primary Salary: $100,110
Boilerplate Teacher Salary: $57,936
Difference: $42,175

In Washington, D.C., master pay is good for 13th overall but teacher salaries are the fourth-highest in the state. That $100,110 might seem like a pretty great deal, but given that the nation's capital is and so expensive to live in, it probable won't go nearly equally far as it would in other cities on this list.

12. Minnesota

Average Principal Salary: $100,870
Average Teacher Salary: $51,384
Difference: $49,486

Minnesota just managed to clear the threshold for this list by less than $i,000 a year, but at that place'due south a good chance that y'all might be able to get more than for your money than the higher-paid principals living in more expensive states. Minnesota is right at the national average for basic costs.

11. Illinois

Average Main Bacon: $102,450
Average Teacher Bacon: $45,516
Departure: $56,934

A state with comparatively low teacher wages, Illinois is nevertheless among the stronger states for the bounty it'south paying to its principals. Earning half dozen figures probable makes the daily struggle of managing an entire schoolhouse in the Chicago suburbs just a lilliputian easier to cope with.

10. Rhode Island

Average Chief Salary: $103,490
Average Instructor Bacon: $44,340
Departure: $59,150

Rhode Island's teacher salary puts it firmly in the lesser half of the country, even while its master salaries are among the pinnacle dozen, resulting in a pay gap of almost $60,000 — pretty large for America'southward smallest land. Making nether $45,000 probable means teachers have to buy in majority even equally their supervisors can likely afford some of the finer things.

9. Massachusetts

Average Main Bacon: $103,810
Boilerplate Teacher Salary: $52,966
Difference: $fifty,844

A state where principals aren't quite making double that of the average teacher, Massachusetts is among the 10 states with the highest boilerplate compensation for classroom instructors. However, it'south a clear example of why someone looking to maximize their income probable isn't planning on becoming a teacher: Despite being amongst the ten highest, the average teacher's salary is nevertheless below that of the nationwide median salary.

8. Maryland

Boilerplate Principal Salary: $104,530
Average Teacher Salary: $48,775
Difference: $55,775

It'south worth noting that at that place's a lot of overlap betwixt the states where principals make more than $100,000 a year and usa with the highest concentrations of millionaires — seven of the ten states with the about millionaires per capita are also on this list. While it's hard to say precisely what the correlation is, it could be that a larger taxation base of operations helps public pedagogy systems pay their administrators more.

7. Alaska

Boilerplate Principal Salary: $107,410
Average Teacher Salary: $64,814
Difference: $42,596

Most of u.s.a. on this list could hire two teachers for what they're paying their principals, but there are five instances where teacher salaries are over half that of principals'. Ane of the almost pronounced cases, though, is in Alaska, where the highest average instructor salary in the country means yous would be over $20,000 a year short of a 2d instructor for the $107,410 the average principal makes.

It's a expert matter teachers are paid well — the price of living in Alaska is high.

6. Washington

Average Primary Salary: $108,310
Average Teacher Salary: $46,131
Divergence: $62,179

Based on a 40-hr week, principals in Washington are making $52.07 an hour. However, if you consider the fact that the average work week during the school year clears 60 hours, that wage drops to under $35 while school is in session.

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5. Delaware

Average Principal Salary: $108,800
Boilerplate Teacher Salary: $56,342
Difference: $52,458

While $108,800 might not be enough to make your dwelling house in Bethany Beach — habitation to the land'south nearly expensive nix lawmaking — it is probably more than enough to live comfortably.

four. California

Average Chief Salary: $114,270
Average Teacher Salary: $48,298
Difference: $65,972

California is some other state where teacher salaries don't appear to exist in line with those of principals, with the boilerplate instructor pulling down under $50,000 a year. If you're wrapping upwardly a career in educational activity that hasn't left you with a lot of savings, consider calling the boondocks of Hanford home. It'south the best place in the state to live on a fixed income.

3. New York

Average Principal Salary: $120,810
Average Teacher Salary: $52,203
Departure: $68,607

New York might be defendant of compensating its principals at the expense of its teachers — the $68,607 gap betwixt the 2 is second but to New Jersey. So, while teachers probably can't expect to afford a holiday in the city on what they're earning, their supervisors potentially could.

2. New Bailiwick of jersey

Average Primary Bacon: $125,760
Average Teacher Bacon: $53,208
Deviation: $72,552

In New Jersey, principals become generous wages while teachers suffer. With an boilerplate teacher salary of merely $53,208, the gap betwixt principals and teachers is at its highest in the Garden State.

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1. Connecticut

Average Principal Salary: $127,110
Boilerplate Teacher Salary: $lx,702
Divergence: $66,408

While Connecticut has the top salary for administrators, it'due south also not doing likewise shabby in the teacher salary department with the third-highest average wage in the country in that category.

For the most function, at that place's a strong correlation between instructor and principal salaries, simply in that location were some outliers among united states where principal salaries didn't cantankerous $100,000. Northward and South Carolina were both amidst the top five for teacher bacon, but paid the boilerplate principal $68,660 and $83,330, respectively.

Click through to encounter the average cost of instruction in every state.

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Methodology: GOBankingRates used information from Sokanu, the career matching platform, to determine the highest paid school principals on boilerplate, forth with their hourly wages. Teacher salary data is also from Sokanu.