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Show TqssGdsg's Salary Salary schedules for classroom teachers in Utah were increased by an average of 7.2 percent this year (1978-79), according to an analysis of district salary schedules prepared by the State Board of Education. FOR THE average teacher with a bachelor's degree, this is equal to a salary increase of about $821 per year. In addition to this overall boost in the salary schedules, about two-thirds of the teachers who are not at the top bracket of the salary scale also receive an annual experience increment averaging another $476 this year. THUS, THE total increase for the average teacher who had not reached the top step amounted to $1,297, or about 11.4 percent during the 197879 school year. Starting salaries for teachers with a bachelor's degree will average $9,768 this year, with beginning salaries ranging from a low of $9,468 in Logan School District Dis-trict to a high of $10, 170 in the Tooele School District. THE SALARY schedules include regular increases for experience and added academic training. Thus, experienced teachers with a master's degree would receive amounts ranging from $14,590 in the Piute School District to $18,625 in the Jordan School District. The average maximum throughout the state for a teacher with a master's degree this year is $16,832, or $1,171 above the 1977-78 maximum. All of these amounts are for approximately approxima-tely 180-185 teaching days or nine months of actual service. OVER THE past five years, salary schedules for bachelor-degree teachers in Utah have risen by an average of $3,891 or 48.3 percent. per-cent. In addition, teachers who had reached the top step in the salary schedule received annual experience increments averaging another $1,409 over the five-year five-year period. IN 173, the average beginning begin-ning salary in Utah for a teacher with a bachelor's degree was $6,651. The average salary for this same teacher this year with five years teaching experience is $11,951. This represents salary increases totaling $5,300, or 79.7percent for the five-year period. IT SHOULD also be noted that if a teacher who began teaching five years ago had acquired added academic training, he or she would have received an even greater salary boost during the period. For example, a teacher with a master's degree and five years teaching experience would have received an average salary in Utah of $13,079, or about $1,128 more than a teacher with only a bachelor's degree. IN ORDER to encourage teachers . to seek added academic training, some districts dis-tricts limit the step advances for bachelor-degree teachers, while providing added compensation com-pensation for those teachers who obtain training beyond the bachelor degree. The greater-than-average salary increases provided in Utah during recent years have tended to close the gap in teacher salary levels that formerly existed between Utah and the other Mountain States. TEN YEARS ago (1967-68), for example, the average salary paid to classroom teachers in Utah was approximately 8.6 percent below the average of the eight Mountain States. By 1977-78, the difference had narrowed to 3.0 percent. Utah, currently, pays five percent of the employee's share of the required retirement re-tirement contribution, a special benefit not generally available in the other states. WHEN THIS special "fringe benefit" is taken into consideration, the average salary paid to classroom teachers in Utah actually was 1.8 percent greater than the average salary paid to classroom teachers in the eight Mountain States last year. |