Isle teacher pay
at bottom in survey
of 50 U.S. areas

Hawaii's high cost of living
effectively reduces salaries
to an average of $27,048

Honolulu teacher salaries were the lowest out of 50 U.S. metropolitan areas in 2003-04 when adjusted for the cost of living, and likely will remain so despite a planned pay raise, according to a nationwide analysis.

Hawaii's average public-school teacher salary of $45,467 for that period -- the most recent complete set of data -- ranked 26th in the country, according to the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis,which compiled the inaugural study.

However, Hawaii's high cost of living reduced that figure to an effective $27,048, dead last in the survey, it said.

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The study analyzed salaries in the 20 largest metropolitan areas in the country, plus an additional 30 areas selected for geographical balance.

Average salaries in each area were then adjusted using an independent cost-of-living formula that factors in local costs of housing, groceries and other expenses.

Senior policy analyst Matt Moore said the study was conducted to "inform the debate" about teacher salaries by highlighting the crucial cost-of-living factor.

"All cities, and therefore all teacher salaries, are not created equal," Moore said.

"Public teachers who are paid above the national average may actually be compensated below the national average when you consider the cost of living."

Though Hawaii was dead last, many cities saw their cost-adjusted salaries drop by even greater margins.

San Francisco, for example, had the second-highest average salary at $59,284, but its ranking plummeted on a cost-adjusted basis to second worst at $32,663 for elementary teachers.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association ratified a new contract in April that will raise average salaries by about 10 percent in the next two years.

But even that is unlikely to lift Hawaii's cost-of-living-adjusted salary out of last place, Moore said.

HSTA President Roger Takabayashi said the study backed the union's position that salaries throughout the state need to continue to rise significantly to attract and retain public-school teachers.

"Those numbers don't come as much of a surprise to us. We've been saying that all along," he said.

The union has set a 2009 goal of raising average starting salaries to $45,000, overall average salaries to $60,000 and the top-scale average to $100,000.