Pay Transparency Project
What the Field Pays
Built from what Montessori educators tell us, and honest about how far it still has to go.
No one has ever known what Montessori schools pay the people who work in them.
We are trying to find out. We use what educators tell us, and everyone stays anonymous. For each job we show the middle pay: half of the people make more than that, and half make less. We only show a number when at least five people have shared, so no one can be picked out.
Everything here is for the United States, in USD. We never mix countries and never change money from one kind to another, so each number is about one real place. There is no world number, and there never will be.
17 answers could not be sorted into a job yet, because the words people used did not name a clear role. We are still working to place them, and we count them in the totals rather than drop them.
What jobs pay a year in the United States
These are the jobs where at least five people shared a yearly pay. Money is rounded to the nearest thousand. A ten month school year and a twelve month full year are different work for the same title, so where we can, we show them apart instead of blending them into one number.
Primary Guide
Pay here depends on whether it is a ten month or a twelve month year, so we show them apart.
22 did not give a contract length.
Of the 52 primary guides who answered, 39 get health coverage through their school. 34 of 47 have a retirement plan. The middle number of paid days off is 10.
Upper Elementary Guide
Pay here depends on whether it is a ten month or a twelve month year, so we show them apart.
7 did not give a contract length.
Of the 25 upper elementary guides who answered, 20 get health coverage through their school. 17 of 23 have a retirement plan. The middle number of paid days off is 10.
Lower Elementary Guide
Pay here depends on whether it is a ten month or a twelve month year, so we show them apart.
6 did not give a contract length.
Of the 22 lower elementary guides who answered, 15 get health coverage through their school. 14 of 21 have a retirement plan. The middle number of paid days off is 10.
Toddler Guide
Pay here depends on whether it is a ten month or a twelve month year, so we show them apart.
5 did not give a contract length.
Of the 18 toddler guides who answered, 10 get health coverage through their school. 11 of 19 have a retirement plan. The middle number of paid days off is 10.
Head of School
Ten month year: 0 shared so far. 5 more and we can show it too.
12 did not give a contract length.
Of the 14 heads of school who answered, 12 get health coverage through their school. 13 of 16 have a retirement plan. The middle number of paid days off is 20.
Program Director
This combines ten and twelve month contracts, which are different work for the same pay. Neither has five responses on its own yet, so read it with care for your own job.
2 did not give a contract length.
Of the 8 program directors who answered, 7 get health coverage through their school. 7 of 7 have a retirement plan. The middle number of paid days off is 11.
Elementary Guide (level not given)
This combines ten and twelve month contracts, which are different work for the same pay. Neither has five responses on its own yet, so read it with care for your own job.
3 did not give a contract length.
Infant Guide
This combines ten and twelve month contracts, which are different work for the same pay. Neither has five responses on its own yet, so read it with care for your own job.
Of the 6 infant guides who answered, 3 get health coverage through their school. 3 of 6 have a retirement plan. The middle number of paid days off is 12.
Adolescent Guide
This combines ten and twelve month contracts, which are different work for the same pay. Neither has five responses on its own yet, so read it with care for your own job.
2 did not give a contract length.
What jobs pay by the hour in the United States
Many people are paid by the hour, not by the year. That is most true for assistants, substitutes, and paras, who are often left out of yearly numbers. An hourly wage is real pay, so we show it on its own.
Primary Guide
Half of the primary guides paid by the hour make more than this, and half make less. Most make between $23.63 and $29.00 an hour. Based on 5 people.
Toddler Guide
Half of the toddler guides paid by the hour make more than this, and half make less. Most make between $23.00 and $31.00 an hour. Based on 5 people.
Not enough by the hour yet
primary assistants
3 people have shared an hourly wage. 2 more and we can show a number.
lower elementary guides
3 people have shared an hourly wage. 2 more and we can show a number.
aftercare and extended day staff
2 people have shared an hourly wage. 3 more and we can show a number.
toddler assistants
2 people have shared an hourly wage. 3 more and we can show a number.
upper elementary assistants
2 people have shared an hourly wage. 3 more and we can show a number.
infant guides
2 people have shared an hourly wage. 3 more and we can show a number.
office and operations managers
1 person has shared an hourly wage. 4 more and we can show a number.
program directors
1 person has shared an hourly wage. 4 more and we can show a number.
Jobs we cannot show yet
Each of these needs five people before we can show a number. If this is your job, you are the one who can open it.
primary assistants
4 people have shared. One more and we can show a number.
instructional coaches
4 people have shared. One more and we can show a number.
admissions / enrollment director
3 people have shared. 2 more and we can show a number.
office and operations managers
3 people have shared. 2 more and we can show a number.
aftercare and extended day staff
2 people have shared. 3 more and we can show a number.
toddler assistants
2 people have shared. 3 more and we can show a number.
specialists and interventionists
2 people have shared. 3 more and we can show a number.
upper elementary assistants
1 person has shared. 4 more and we can show a number.
assistant heads of school
1 person has shared. 4 more and we can show a number.
deans and student support leads
1 person has shared. 4 more and we can show a number.
adolescent assistants
No one has shared this job yet. Five people open it.
lower elementary assistants
No one has shared this job yet. Five people open it.
infant assistants
No one has shared this job yet. Five people open it.
business and finance managers
No one has shared this job yet. Five people open it.
facilities and custodial staff
No one has shared this job yet. Five people open it.
network and central office leaders
No one has shared this job yet. Five people open it.
paras and support staff
No one has shared this job yet. Five people open it.
Where people wrote from
35 states are here, but only 22 of them have reached five people. Nearly every state is still a gap. That is the honest picture, and the one that moves people to add their own.
Enough to show
Still a gap
One more opens this state.
2 more opens this state.
3 more opens this state.
3 more opens this state.
3 more opens this state.
4 more opens this state.
4 more opens this state.
4 more opens this state.
4 more opens this state.
4 more opens this state.
4 more opens this state.
4 more opens this state.
4 more opens this state.
Pay by kind of place
In a large metro area, across the United States, half of the people who shared make more than $60,000, and half make less. Most make between $40,000 and $85,000. Based on 30 people.
In a smaller city or town, across the United States, half of the people who shared make more than $47,000, and half make less. Most make between $34,000 and $54,000. Based on 29 people.
Pay by years in Montessori
What the field pays someone twenty years in is the number that matters most. Groups under five people are held back.
Pay by kind of school
We show a number only for kinds of school with five or more people.
Independent schools
based on 167 people
Public schools
based on 17 people
Charter schools
based on 13 people
Other
based on 8 people
Not enough yet: Teacher education and training centers (1, needs 4 more).
One number to be careful with. Across all 213 yearly answers, the middle is $54,000 and the average is $60,000. We show both to make a point. One number that mixes a young child assistant with a head of school across many jobs is true but tells you almost nothing. That is why we show pay job by job, not in one lump. Read the jobs above, not this line.
How we count
What we ask. We ask people their country, their pay, their job, their benefits, the kind of place they work, and how long they have worked in Montessori. We never ask for your name, your email, or your school. No one can tell it is you.
The middle number. For each job, we show the middle pay. Half of the people make more than that, and half make less. We also show the range most people fall in. We do not use an average. One very high or very low number can pull an average far from what most people really make.
Five people. We only show a number when at least five people in the same job have shared. Below five, we show how many have shared and how many more we need. This keeps anyone from being named. It also keeps us from showing a number built on too little.
By the year and by the hour. Some people are paid a yearly salary and some are paid by the hour. We show both, on their own tracks, with the same rule of five. An hourly wage is real pay, and hourly numbers reach assistants, substitutes, and paras, who are often missing from yearly numbers. We round yearly pay to the nearest thousand and show hourly pay to the cent. We now ask every hourly worker for their weekly hours, so we can turn their pay into a yearly figure. A few older hourly answers came in before we asked, so we could not convert them; they are named in the count below and this is fixed going forward.
Contract length, shown apart. A ten month school year and a twelve month full year are different work for the same job title. We never blend them into one number without saying so, and we never multiply a ten month salary to make it look like a twelve month one. The gap between them is real and it does not point the same way for every job, so any single conversion would be made up. Where both a ten month and a twelve month group reach five people, we show them apart. Where only one does, we show it and say the other is still building. Where neither does, we show one number and mark it plainly as mixed. We now ask everyone their contract length.
Benefits, beside the pay. For each job we can report, we show what share of people get health coverage through their school, what share have a retirement plan, and the middle number of paid days off, each only when at least five people answered. We show benefits as their own facts, next to salary. We never add a guessed dollar value of benefits onto pay to make one total number. A blended total is the number an underpaying school reaches for, and handing it over would switch sides. Salary stays the headline; benefits sit beside it for you to weigh.
One country at a time. We show one country at a time, in that country's own money. We never mix countries, and we never change money from one kind to another. There is no world number here, and there never will be.
Where people live. We group places into three kinds: a large metro area, a smaller city or town, and a rural area. People pick the one that fits. We used to ask for the name of a metro area, but too few people answered for it to mean anything, so we stopped showing it.
Jobs we could not sort. Some answers do not name a clear job. Some name a job we cannot place without a guess. One example is an elementary guide who did not say lower or upper. We keep these answers visible and counted. We do not force them into a job they may not be. Right now 17 answers are still unsorted.
Excluded answers. We leave out answers that are clearly not real, like a pay of zero or a number far too high to be true. Of 236 answers from the United States, 17 are left out this way. A pay of zero can never reach a published number. A further 5 hourly answers could not be turned into a yearly figure because we did not ask for hours at the time; naming that gap is the honest thing to do.
The living wage, later. When a place has enough answers, we will show the living wage beside its pay: what it costs one adult with one child to meet basic needs there. It is not what we think a job should pay. We show it as real-world context, and we never change a wage to match it. Those figures come from the MIT Living Wage Calculator.
Fixing our own data. We check by hand how each answer is sorted, and we fix what we get wrong. So far we have fixed 52 sortings, each one written down with what it was, what it became, and why. The last fix was August 15, 2026.
Fresh as of. The newest answer here came in August 19, 2026.
How to name us. The Peace Rebellion Pay Transparency Project, thepeacerebellion.org, the United States, as of August 19, 2026, based on 219 people.