Cost to Hire a Preschool Teacher

Each teacher’s wage is not really your cost; there’s a greater cost to hire a preschool teacher than just the hourly rate. 

If you pay someone $12/hr. your actual cost is $12.98/hr.  This is because as employers, we pay an equal amount of their Social Security & Medicare costs, plus we also pay State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) and Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA).  So whatever hourly rate you are going to give someone, be sure to multiply it by 1.082 to get your actual hourly cost.  

NOTE: Subs are $12/hr. as contractors and are paid via Bill Pay (They are NOT put on “Payroll” and will receive a 1099 at the end of the year for their taxes if they make more than $600 during the year.)  

For every $1/hr. raise, you can assume it will cost you approximately a little more than $1,000/year.

Each pay period has a $1.75/direct deposit fee, so 6 teachers = $10.50 fee will be added to the amount deducted each payroll from the bank account (it will be added to the large teacher payroll amount deducted).

Once first payroll has been deducted, review payroll budget and ensure it is on track (especially with owner payroll taxes.

Every new teacher costs approximately $215 to start:

• $65 Background Check
• $50 CPR/1^st Aid Certification
• $100 (6.5) hours of training (2.5 hrs. of Observation, 4 hrs. of Training, 1 hr. to watch school end-of-year video)

Hiring (2) teachers for Preschool or Pre-K (i.e. a MWF teacher and a T_TH teacher instead of just a M-F teacher) will cost an extra $500/year for the 2^nd teacher to attend events (i.e. Pow Wow, Teacher Retreat, Graduation) and do activities (get CPR/1^st Aid Certified, write newsletter, etc.)

All teaching hours (i.e. training hours, meet ‘n greet, teacher retreat etc.) are paid on first payroll; they will also receive 1 hr per class “Room Prep” pay.  Each All Day Preschool teacher receives 2 hours per class.

So the next time you need to hire a preschool teacher make sure you’re considering all the costs involved, not just the hourly rate.