Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary

$98,070 against a $50,020 national midpoint is 96% more, or $23.10 an hour. Almost nothing pays this much more without a long, expensive or restricted route in — read that route before reading the number again.

16,970 people work as Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary. That is enough for a functioning national market and not enough for a functioning local one — in most metros this is a few employers rather than a field you can move around inside.

This work suits people who want to spend a career inside one subject, teaching it while contributing to it, and who can tolerate an institution whose incentives do not always favour either.

We carry no verified training length for Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.

A quarter of the field earns under $73,260 and a quarter over $129,130: $55,870 between them, a ratio of 1.8x. Wide enough that the first offer you get tells you more about your prospects than the median does.

Even at the 25th percentile Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary pays $73,260, $23,240 clear of the $50,020 national midpoint. Almost the entire distribution sits above the typical American wage, which is rare and worth weighing against the entry cost.

Avoid it if you cannot afford a long training period that ends without a guaranteed permanent post.

There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 16,970 people employed as Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.

At 1.8x, the distribution for Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary is open enough that specialisation starts to pay. The distance from $73,260 to $129,130 is mostly what you can do that others in the same title cannot.

In cash terms the middle half of Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary runs $73,260 to $129,130 — $55,870 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $98,070.

Between $73,260 and $129,130 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $98,070. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $31,060; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $55,870.

The climb from $98,070 to $129,130 is $31,060; the drop to $73,260 is $24,810. A little more room above the midpoint than below it is the normal shape for Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary and for most paid work, and it is the reason the median is the honest summary rather than the average.

Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $35.22 at the bottom quarter, $47.14 at the midpoint, $62.08 at the top quarter. The typical American job works out at $24.04 on the same basis.