Teacher pay, by state, is easy to find on Google. However, some states have higher costs of living than others. For example, $50,000 in New Jersey spends much differently than it does in Kansas. With that in mind, which states have the best- and worst-compensated teachers, given cost of living and taxes? With the help of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Forbes, and other sources, USATestprep has compiled a list of the best and worst states for teachers – not by pay, but by “adjusted pay.” You can download the spreadsheet with salary, cost of living, and tax data here. Middle school teacher salary figures have been adjusted from each state to reflect the cost of living and taxes, so that you can compare “apples to apples”.
Score from the experts at Killer Infographics
Visual Communication - 55%
Design - 75%
Content/Script - 75%
Usability - 65%
68%
Final Grade
This infographic shows the best and worst states for teacher pay. Intuitive color coding and highlighted states on the map help ground the findings, but there is no visual indication of the subject (teachers/teacher pay) at all. As-is it would be well suited for a purpose like sharing on social media, but it leans heavily on the context provided in the above statements to carry it. In the map section it would also be helpful to use data visualization to visually compare the differences in adjusted pay between states, since while the viewer can quickly see which states are best and worst, they can't see by how much without reading. Lastly, ensure all images are high-res enough to be readable. In all we'd give this a D.
