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The average salary for a Michigan public school teacher was $62,280 in 2016-17, the first time in five years that the average has increased, according to the Michigan Department of Education.

But the average is still almost $750 below the peak in 2009-10, when teacher salaries averaged $63,024.

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Source: Michigan Department of Education

A statewide retirement buyout offer in the spring of 2010 brought down the average in 2010-11. It went back up in 2011-12 before declining slightly for each of the next four years.

It was $61,875 in 2015-16, and rose 0.7% in 2016-17.

Average teacher pay is calculated by dividing the number of full-time equivalent teachers by total payroll. The number does not include benefits but it does include pay beyond base salary, such as stipends for coaching, longevity bonuses or extra pay for large class size.

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Three factors have depressed teacher wages in recent years:

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% of all Michigan public school teachers. In 2016-17, that dropped to 2%. Meanwhile, the proportion of first-year teachers increased from 6% to 10% 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% of the public school population in 2015-16. As noted below, charters tend to pay less than traditional public schools.

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Below is an online database that allows you to look up the 2016-17 average teacher salary and the number of full-time-equivalent teachers for any Michigan school district, and compare how those numbers have changed since 2010-11.

The numbers on the display page of the database can be sorted by clicking a column title. Click once for a top-to-bottom sort, and twice for bottom-to-top sort.

Click on "details" for additional information.

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Scott Levin / MLive

2016-17 average salary by Michigan school district

If you don't see the database on your browser, click here.

There are some important caveats about the numbers.

For instance, two districts can have identical salary schedules but very different average salaries.

Michigan teacher salaries are typically based on years of experience and whether they have a master's degree, which means a district's average reflects the experience of their staff as well as their salary schedule. A district with a higher percentage of newer teachers will have a lower average salary than districts with a similar pay scale but a more experienced and better-educated staff.

Moreover, changes in the pay schedule aren't the only reason the average salary may have gone up or down. It also could reflect a change in the staff composition.

For instance, the average salary may have gone down because a flurry of retirements by older, more expensive staff, or a flurry of hiring of young, less expensive teachers. The average may have gone up because there were layoffs and less-expensive teachers were let go.

For those who want to dig deeper into the numbers, Michigan school districts and charters are required to post salary information on their websites. Look for the Michigan map on a school district's homepage and click for the financial reports. The teacher salary schedule typically can be found as "Schedule A" in the union contract posted online.

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State report does not include average pay for most charter schools

In addition, the average teacher salary is not available for most charter schools because staff are employed by a charter-school management company and fall into the category of contract employees.

Blanks appear in the database where the numbers are not provided. However, salary information should appear on as part of the mandated transparency reports on individual charter school websites.

Below is an interactive map showing 2016-17 average teacher salaries by county.

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Scott Levin / MLive

Map of average 2016-17 teacher pay by county

Click on a county to see the averages for 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Public school teacher salaries averaged $71,936 in Macomb County, the highest county average in the state.

County with the lowest average is Montmorency in the northeast Lower Peninsula, where the average is $41,967. (Montmorency has two school districts -- Atlanta and Hillman --- that collectively enroll l about 700 students.)

Caveats about the countywide averages:

The averages are calculated on districts based in that county, regardless of where the school buildings are located. (For instance, all Plainwell teachers are counted in the Allegan County average, although Plainwell has a school in Kalamazoo County.)

The difference in the average from 2015-16 to 2016-76 may reflect a change in the number of charter schools reporting salaries.

The averages do not include most charter schools.

Below are some other fast facts about the statewide numbers.

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Michigan teachers still above national average

Michigan's average teacher salary is 6% above the 2016 national average of $58,353, according to data collected by the National Education Association,

Michigan ranks 11th among the 50 states, according to the NEA. New York has the highest average salary at $79,152 and the lowest is South Dakota at $42,025.

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Source: Michigan Department of Education

Number of teachers drops for fourth consecutive year

There were 98,481 teachers in 2016-17 in Michigan's public schools, continuing a downward trend since 2012-13.

The number is down 11% from fall 2006, compared to a 9% drop in student enrollment.

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Source: Michigan Department of Education

The average Michigan teacher is a white woman in her 40s

In 2016-17, 92% of public school teachers were white and 77% were women. The largest age group are 40-somethings, who comprised 32 percent of the state's teachers.

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Source: Michigan Department of Education

83% of teachers work for traditional school districts

About 83% of Michigan public school teachers work in a traditional school district.

Charter schools employed about 11% of Michigan public school teachers and intermediate school districts, which typically provide countywide special-education services, employ another 6%.

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Source: Michigan Department of Education

Charter schools have lower salaries, based on schools that report

The 2016-17 report lists 300 charter schools. However, only 29 schools reported salary figures, and their average teacher pay was $37,096.

In addition to a lower salary schedule, charter schools are more likely to have less-experienced teachers at the lower end of the pay scale.

In fall 2016, about 26% of charter school teachers were age 30 or under compared to 11% of teachers at traditional districts, and a quarter of charter school teachers were in their first year at that school compared to 8% of teachers in traditional districts.

In addition, teachers in traditional districts were almost three times more likely to have a master's degree or other certification beyond a bachelor's degree.

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Detroit teachers rank 83rd in average salary

In 2016-17, the average salary was $64,675 for teachers in Detroit Public Schools, the state's largest district. DPS ranked 83rd in average teacher pay among the 560 districts and charters that reported salary numbers.

DPS had 31 students for each teacher compared to a state average of 23 students per teacher.