The money gap

By Brian Kenney -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2009

When it comes to money, it’s far better having a teacher’s contract than not. While the median salary among all participants was $49,900, if you dig beyond the specific job titles, some real differences emerge between school and public librarians (see Median Salaries by Job Title, chart above).

It’s unlikely they’re driving Maseratis or Porsches, but with a median salary of $62,500, teacher librarians led the pack, followed by library media specialists at $52,500 and school librarians at $47,500. More than 90 percent of those in schools who responded to the survey worked in public schools with 50 percent on elementary school campuses and the remainder split between middle and high schools. To keep things simple, all librarians who work in schools—no matter what their titles—will be referred to as school librarians.

If you’re in a public library, you need to be a head librarian or a department head to break $52,500. Youth services librarians bring home $42,500, while children’s librarians earn a median salary of $37,500. Most of the public librarians who responded to our survey worked in midsized libraries (41 percent) serving populations between 25,000 and 100,000 or large libraries (33 percent), helping populations between 100,000 and 490,000.

How many librarians thought they were overpaid? That would be none. Fifty-three percent considered their salaries to be fair, and 47 percent felt they were underpaid.