Kindergarten teachers are below average when it comes to happiness.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, kindergarten teachers rate their career happiness 3.0 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 36% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy kindergarten teachers are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Education administrator | 3.2 | $48k |
| Childcare worker | 3.2 | $27k |
| Preschool teacher | 3.2 | $30k |
| Special education teacher | 3.1 | $53k |
| Teacher | 3.0 | $61k |
| Kindergarten teacher | 3.0 | $61k |
| High school teacher | 3.0 | $62k |
| School psychologist | 3.0 | $80k |
| Elementary school teacher | 2.9 | $61k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are kindergarten teachers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do kindergarten teachers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as kindergarten teachers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are kindergarten teacher’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are kindergarten teachers making the best use of their abilities?
Are kindergarten teachers happy with their salary?
Kindergarten teachers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.5/5. Most kindergarten teachers do not feel that their salaries adequately reflect their work, and are actively unhappy with their income.
We asked kindergarten teachers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.5 out of 5 stars
253 kindergarten teachers
6% of kindergarten teachers rated their compensation 5 stars
17% of kindergarten teachers rated their compensation 4 stars
26% of kindergarten teachers rated their compensation 3 stars
27% of kindergarten teachers rated their compensation 2 stars
24% of kindergarten teachers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do kindergarten teachers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, kindergarten teachers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.2/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked kindergarten teachers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
256 kindergarten teachers
14% of kindergarten teachers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
32% of kindergarten teachers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
25% of kindergarten teachers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
16% of kindergarten teachers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
13% of kindergarten teachers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as kindergarten teachers?
Kindergarten teachers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.7/5. The majority of kindergarten teachers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked kindergarten teachers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.7 out of 5 stars
277 kindergarten teachers
29% of kindergarten teachers rated their career fit 5 stars
30% of kindergarten teachers rated their career fit 4 stars
25% of kindergarten teachers rated their career fit 3 stars
9% of kindergarten teachers rated their career fit 2 stars
7% of kindergarten teachers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a kindergarten teacher’s work environment?
As a whole, kindergarten teachers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.2/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked kindergarten teachers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
277 kindergarten teachers
17% of kindergarten teachers rated their work environment 5 stars
26% of kindergarten teachers rated their work environment 4 stars
32% of kindergarten teachers rated their work environment 3 stars
13% of kindergarten teachers rated their work environment 2 stars
12% of kindergarten teachers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are kindergarten teachers making the best use of their abilities?
Former kindergarten teachers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.9/5. Kindergarten teachers tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked kindergarten teachers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
279 kindergarten teachers
13% of kindergarten teachers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
22% of kindergarten teachers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
25% of kindergarten teachers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
26% of kindergarten teachers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
14% of kindergarten teachers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars