In this January 2016 file photo, members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers announce against Detroit Public Schools to repair conditions of the schools. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive Detroit)

MLive file photo

Average salary for teachers has been going down

The average salary for Michigan public school teachers dropped for the fifth consecutive year in 2015-16, according to data recently released by the state Center for Educational Performance and Information.

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Source: Center for Educational Performance and Information.

Average pay was $61,875 in 2015-16

The average salary was $61,875 in 2014-16, down from $61,978 the previous year. Michigan's average teacher pay peaked at $63,024 in 2009-10, and dropped to $61,530 the next year, following a statewide retirement buyout offer in the spring of 2010. The average pay is calculated by dividing the total cost of salaries by the number of full-time-equivalent teachers.

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Source: Center for Educational Performance and Information.

3 reasons average pay is going down

Three factors since then have continued to depress teacher wages.

Raises have been minimal in recent years, and wage rollbacks have occurred in some districts.

Baby Boomers at the top of the salary scale continue to retire and are being replaced by younger, less expensive teachers. In 2008-09, teachers with at least 30 years in their district comprised 6.4 percent of all Michigan public school teachers. In 2015-16, that dropped to 1.9 percent. Meanwhile, the proportion of first-year teachers increased from 6 percent to 8.9 percent of the teaching pool.

Finally, the increase in charter schools appears to have driven down salaries. The Legislature lifted the cap on the number of charter schools in 2011, and charters enrolled about 10 percent of the public school population in 2015-16. As noted below, charters tend to pay less than traditional public schools.

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Source: Center for Educational Performance and Information.

Macomb County has the highest average salaries in the state

Public school teacher salaries averaged $71,532 in Macomb County, the highest county average in the state. The chart above looks at the averages in 13 urban counties for 2015-16.

These averages do not include the majority of charter schools. Because staff are employed by a charter-school management company and fall into the category of contract employees, salary information for many charter schools does not appear in state's Bulletin 1014, which offers a district-by-district breakdown of expenditures. However, salary information does appear on as part of the mandated transparency reports on charter school websites.

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Protesters during a "sick-out" of Detroit Public School teachers, protesting poor conditions in some school buildings, and ongoing state control over the district. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive Detroit)

Tanya Moutzalias

Detroit teachers rank 248th in average salary

In 2015-16, the average salary was $57,793 for teachers in Detroit Public Schools, the state's largest district. DPS ranked 248th in average teacher pay and had 30 students for each teacher compared to a state average of 26 students per teacher.

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Source: Center for Educational Performance and Information.

Charter schools have lower salaries, based on schools that report

The 2015-16 report lists 300 charter schools, which employed about 10% of Michigan public school teachers. However, only 25 schools reported salary figures, and their average teacher pay was $43,559. In addition to a lower salary scheduled, charter schools are more likely to have less-experienced teachers at the lower end of the pay scale.

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Julie Mack | jmack1@mlive.com

Profile of average Michigan public school teacher in 2015-16

n 2015-16, 91 percent of public school teachers were white and 77 percent are women. The largest age group is 40-something, who comprised 32 percent of the state's teachers.

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Source: Center for Educational Performance and Information.

Number of teachers is declining along with student enrollment

There were 99,127 teachers in 2015-16 in Michigan's public schools, the first time that number has dropped below more than 100,000 in recent memory. The number is down 10% from fall 2006, which matches the drop in student population.

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MLive file photo of Rockford teachers creating bags of school supplies before the first day of school.

MLive file photo

Michigan teachers still above national average

The average U.S. teacher salary in 2015-16 was $58,064, according to the National Education Association. New York has the highest average salary at $77,957 and the lowest is South Dakota at $42,025.

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MLive file photo at Columbia Central Junior High School.

MLive file photo

Look up salary numbers for your district

Click here to see a database that allows readers to look up the 2015-16 average salary for each Michigan public school district and, when available, for charter schools. Those numbers are compared with the average for 2010-11.

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