Take a closer look at your retail salesperson or ride-hailing driver during the holiday season. They might be your child’s teacher.
For many educators, school breaks are not real time off, but a chance to supplement what they describe as insufficient wages that have not kept up with inflation. That’s why some teachers say they have second jobs and spend breaks like this holiday season — a perk of a career in education — working.
Teachers, who typically get summers and several other weeks off each year, are more likely than other adults to work a second job, data shows. Nearly 17 percent of public school teachers reported working outside of the classroom, according to data from the 2020-2021 school year, the most recent available. Overall, about 6 percent of working adults have multiple jobs, federal data shows.
Ashleigh Muhme, an art, music and dance teacher in southern Arizona, will be working during the holiday break at alcohol retailer Total Wine & More — a job she also holds during the school year — and selling handmade bags. Ed Tamano, a substitute teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, plans to sell electronics at a retail chain. David Ring, who teaches government and economics at a Lubbock, Texas, high school, will spend about half his time as a PA announcer for high school basketball games.
“I know a number of people who do DoorDash or Uber on the side,” said Ring, whose health insurance premium doubled to more than $300 this year. “It’s definitely unfortunate that so many teachers have to work so hard.”
Yet public school teachers’ wages are rising. Following a wave of teacher strikes in 2018 and 2019 that called attention to poor working conditions and blasted school districts for low pay, tens of thousands of educators received significant raises.
The median salary for a high school teacher rose 6 percent between 2019 and 2023, to $65,220, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Elementary and middle school teachers saw similar growth. But even with recent raises, some teachers say they still struggle financially — having to wait tables or stock shelves throughout the year to pay for groceries, utilities, health care and other expenses.
This reality reflects broader anxieties about the cost of living, which President Donald Trump attempted to address two weeks ago with claims that the prices of some goods were coming down. But those statements don’t match what many people are experiencing. Only 31 percent of U.S. adults approve of how the president has handled the economy, according to an AP-NORC poll.
“As inflation works, do we ever actually see it?” Muhme asked, referring to her most recent raise — a 3 percent, or $2,000, increase she received two years ago. “It continues to pay the bills that went up.”
Lucy Mehlan, 40, who teaches life sciences to seventh graders in a Minneapolis suburb, is giving up a portion of her break to supplement her teaching salary by working extra hours as a server at a bowling alley.
“I work super hard all winter,” she said. The bowling season begins in the fall, giving Mehlan a steady source of extra income serving teams for much of the school year. She works at the bowling alley for about 10 hours each week, which has caused her to miss out on tucking her young daughters in for bed and going trick-or-treating on Halloween.
The bowling alley is “the only reason we can afford the little extras,” such as family vacations, Mehlan said. The bowlers are particularly generous tippers in the days leading up to Christmas, she added.
“It seems like we have to fight harder and harder to try to get any type of raise,” Mehlan said about her teaching salary. “Our paychecks barely get bigger, and our bills just get way bigger.”
In interviews, teachers said they never expected to make a lot of money: The profession is known for long hours and wages that are dependent on public funding. But one job should be enough to make ends meet, said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a national union.
“[Teachers] often dig into their own pockets to make sure students have books, food and even coats for the winter, especially as basic necessities in this country become less and less affordable for working people,” Weingarten said in a statement. “Educators, who make every other profession possible, should be entitled to a decent wage and pathway to the middle class.”
Contending with higher expenses — including homeowner’s insurance that increased by $1,500 this year — Ashley Modesto, a high school math teacher in Orlando, works about 10 hours a week as a private tutor. The raise she received from her school district this year, roughly $100 after taxes, “is not enough to make a difference,” the 34-year-old said.
She’ll keep working over break, she said, despite the lack of sleep and increased stress she has experienced as a result of holding two jobs.
“The additional work that I’m doing is having a negative impact on my health,” Modesto said. “I feel that we lose respect every year. … It’s hard to work a job for not much money. It’s harder to work a job that doesn’t respect you.”
Tamano, 50, has picked up seasonal work at a big-box electronics store. He earns about $20 an hour, compared with $30 an hour he makes hopping between San Francisco Bay Area schools as a substitute teacher.
“I can’t make money because there’s no school,” he said about winter break. He works for a company that places him in schools that need extra help. Next year, he’s hoping for more consistency: a permanent teaching job with his own classroom.
In Coupeville, Washington, Shelley Sellers, a school paraprofessional who assists certified teachers, also supplements her pay with a second job. She works as a home health aide. “It’s lovely,” said the 51-year-old single mother, thinking about her winter break from school. “I’m only working one job.”
She plans to work about 38 hours a week during break — bathing patients, rotating them in their beds, preparing their meals and performing other daily tasks.
“There’s no recharge time. Those breaks are a recharge time [for educators], and that’s not really on the docket when you have to work multiple jobs,” Sellers said.
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