$61,396.

Just to get that out of the way, that’s the average statewide total annual pay for a full-time teacher, according to an analysis the 2010-11 statewide personnel database. But individual teacher pay can vary considerably, depending on a teacher’s experience and education and also his or her district’s contract. While base pay for teachers and other certificated employees is nearly identical, teachers typically get extra pay for extra assignments and individual bargaining units may have negotiated for what’s known in some districts as “TRI” (time, responsibility and incentive) pay. The bottom line is an average teacher in Federal Way, for instance, ends up making $17,000 or so less than an average teacher in Everett.

SoundInfo’s school employee database, which we just updated for 2010-11, lets users explore such numbers for themselves. We’ve taken the information from the state’s annual personnel database and put it into searchable, sortable and human readable form. Over the years, it’s been our most used database, and is part of our commitment to making public information public. In addition to pay and benefits, the database also shows the education and experience of teachers and whether they have national board certification. It also flags whether they’ve had a disciplinary action recorded by the state.

The chart below shows a summary of district pay for full time teachers. It includes the top 10 districts for average total pay, along with South Sound districts. See our new average education pay database to see how districts compare in how they pay superintendents, principals and teachers.

NOTE: According to OSPI, total salary “reflects the final current school year payroll for each employee…including those from employee base and supplemental contract assignments, sick leave buy back, and vacation buy out.” It does not include insurance and other benefits.