This is wrong. The
mean annual wage in Wisconsin for an Elementary School teacher is $51,240/year. (
Bureau of Labor Statistics) For middle school it's $50,950, and for high school it's $54,720. Typical implies average, and mean and median refer to average, but the "typical" teacher is, in fact, not making "about $60,000."
In Milwaukee, specifically, according to
Salary.com, the
median wages for an elementary school teacher is $52,401/year. For high school it's $54,639. According to the
BLS the
mean for elementary is $56,370, for middle school is $52,610, and for high school is $54,620.
Also, these numbers are the MEANS and MEDIANS, meaning, there are people above and below these numbers because they don't account for experience, number of years teaching, educational background, etc. There sure are teachers making $60,000 a year - but they've been in that district for a while. While we're at it, the 10% and 25% marks run from $32,962 to $43,292, which is quite a bit less than $60,000. 90% tops out at $72,865, which is $12,000 more than $60,000.
ETA because I was curious: According to Salary.com the area with the most parity to Milwaukee in terms of cost of living in NC is the Charlotte area, which is 4.4% lower than Milwaukee. The
median salary for an elementary school teacher in that area is $50,974, and for high school is $53,151.
If an elementary teacher making the median from Milwaukee (making $52,401 per year) were to move to Charlotte, NC, to make the median there ($50,974), according to the cost of living calculator on salary.com they would have a $22/year negative net change in disposable income.