Education Funding News in Brief

Tax Break Covers Costco and Cokes

By Andrew Ujifusa — February 13, 2018 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

In a push to promote the new federal tax code’s benefits, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., highlighted how a public high school secretary in Pennsylvania is now taking home an extra $1.50 per week. That sum will “more than cover” the “pleasantly surprised” secretary’s annual membership fee at Costco, he tweeted out Feb. 3. But Ryan deleted it later after getting a lot of pushback on social media.

The Associated Press story cited by Ryan quoted Julie Ketchum, a secretary at Hempfield High in the Hempfield district. Ketchum said she was amused that Ryan highlighted her as an example of how the tax code would help workers. She isn’t listed on a website listing Hempfield personnel and their salaries.

Nonetheless, we got to thinking: How much do school secretaries typically make, and what would a salary increase of $1.50 a week mean for them?

The average school secretary’s base pay is $34,450, according to Glassdoor, a job and employer-review site.

However, Payscale, an employment research firm, recently reported that the median salary for school secretaries is $28,567, based on a survey of 1,030 secretaries. And SimplyHired, which helps employees and employers calculate compensation, reported an average salary of $31,568.

These sorts of stats should be taken with a grain of salt, in part because they are based on online submissions. For example, Glassdoor separately lists the average base pay of elementary school secretaries at $46,010 a year, based on more than 7,500 salary figures submitted to Glassdoor. The website doesn’t cite a reason for the discrepancy between elementary school secretaries and the more general figure.

It’s worth noting that the mean average wage for secretaries and administrative assistants for various employers in Pennsylvania was $34,930 in 2016, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Ketchum said the extra salary means $78 more a year for her, although that’s based on getting $1.50 more over 52 weeks, and many school employees do not get paid during the summer break. That salary bump does indeed cover an individual’s annual Costco “Gold Star” membership of $60, plus $18, enough for 12 hot dogs and 12 sodas at Costco.

Ultimately, $78 per year extra represents a pay increase of about 0.23 percent for the average school secretary. That’s if we take Glassdoor’s annual average base pay of $34,450 for secretaries, which is close to the mean average wage figures from BLS cited earlier.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the February 14, 2018 edition of Education Week as Tax Break Covers Costco and Cokes

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Rethinking STEM Assessment: Strategies for Administrators
School and district leaders will explore strategies to enhance STEM assessment practices across their district, within schools and classrooms.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
Federal Webinar Keeping Up with the Trump Administration's Latest K-12 Moves: Subscriber-Exclusive Quick Hit
EdWeek subscribers, join this 30-minute webinar to find out what the latest federal policy changes mean for K-12 education.
Artificial Intelligence Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: Math & Technology: Finding the Recipe for Student Success
How should we balance AI & math instruction? Join our discussion on preparing future-ready students.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Funding Trump Wants to Cut More Than 40 Federal K-12 Programs. See Which Ones
The president's detailed budget, released Friday, proposes eliminating dozens of programs as part of a nearly $13 billion cut.
2 min read
Illustration of a budget sheet, pencil, and calculator.
Maxim Basinski/iStock/Getty
Education Funding Trump's Education Budget Calls for Billions in Cuts, Major Policy Changes
The proposal includes a plan to eliminate 18 existing grant programs and replace them with one funding stream.
7 min read
President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order alongside Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025.
President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order alongside Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in the East Room of the White House in Washington on March 20, 2025. The president's budget proposes a 15% cut for the U.S. Department of Education.
Ben Curtis/AP
Education Funding Linda McMahon Offers Few New Specifics on Ed. Dept. Budget Cuts
The Education Department wants to cut billions in spending but has offered few specifics on funding streams it wants to consolidate.
5 min read
Education Secretary Linda McMahon appears before the House Appropriation Panel about the 2026 budget in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 2025.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon appears before a House appropriations panel on May 21, 2025, to speak about her department's 2026 budget proposal. The budget would cut department spending by 15%.
Jason Andrew for Education Week
Education Funding Trump's Cancellation of States' COVID-Relief Funding Is on Hold Again
Pandemic-relief funds in 16 states have been temporarily restored—again—just days before they were set to expire.
3 min read
3d Render Red glossy Glass Dollar Sign icon in circle Blue Soft Maze, problems, solutions, strategy concept
iStock/Getty