Teacher Salaries

This blog is supposed to be an honest look at my experiences in the Israeli eductaional system. To do that, I guess I could not go very long without talking about salaries.

But an introduction first: I approach this topic with a bit of fear. I'd like this blog to be a frank look at my experiences and, if at all possible, to be of assistance to future olim who are in chinuch. Because of these two goals, a post about salaries is liable to scare people away. Obviously, that is last thing I'd like to do. Still, I talk about it because a) I want to be honest, and b) I want future olim who are in chinuch to come here with their eyes wide open. Worse than a poor salary is a poor salary that you expected to be a high salary.

OK, here we go.....

After taxes, I take home 1/5 of what I used to take home in the U.S. That's a big pay cut, to say the least. (I wonder what the reduction is in other professions.) We really fel it.

We were never rich in America but we were able to pay our bills, put away some money, not worry so much when the washer broke. But, we also didn't take major vacations either. Since this is an anonymous blog, I can honestly say, that we were absoulutely very "rich" in the Pirkei Avot sense - we were happy with what we had. We really felt like we needed nothing: we drove newer cars, not fancy but reliable and safe. Our house was respectable and roomy but not huge. We visited Israel once every other year. All was really fine. Even perfect. Thank G-d.

In Israel, in truth, it has been hard. My wife and I have had to watch our expenses now more carefully than before. We've dipped into savings a bit. It's not easy. That's the straight truth. It has not been easy. Despite the lower tuition bills (cut by almost 75% from our American bills!), mostly everything else costs the same or more. And that's without mentioning trips to America that we can no longer afford. I do not want to scare off potential olim, but the truth is the truth.

But I will say this: we're in Israel. I am well aware of how hard it is to read gushy descriptions of what it's like to live in Israel. I never used to read them before we moved. So I will not start now. But I will say that that statement, "We are in Israel," really is something that my wife and I appreciate and value. It's not a motto or a slogan - we're really here!

We're here. And that really is worth a lot.

To be continued......