Clocking Out? Not Quite: Teachers Balance Second Jobs

Did you know that around two thirds of teachers in America claim that they don’t make enough money off of teaching alone? That’s why about one third of teachers in America have a second job: to help pay the bills. 

There are countless teachers out there who choose to have a second job. They all have their own reasons for having a second job: some for the extra money, some do it as a creative outlet, and others do it because it’s their passion. 

Agriculture teacher Justin Reynolds works on his farm whenever he’s not in the classroom. Reynolds was raised on his family’s farm, claiming he was “raised up farming all my life”. He’s always been interested in farming, but when the time came to make a decision about his career he didn’t have the option to go straight to the farm, stating “I wanted that and I realized that that door shut very quickly on me”. His only other choice that he was considering was to go to Clemson college for agriculture. He then quickly realized that his calling was in the classroom, where he gets to share his love for farming with the youth. But he never forgot about his dream to one day own his own farm.

Eventually, Reynolds was given the opportunity to buy his own farm alongside his wife. “We went to the bank and borrowed a large amount of money,” Reynolds claims. “Through borrowing a large amount of money, we committed to a few different things.” Reynolds doesn’t have time to manage his farm all the time, so his wife helps out a lot. “She runs our day-to-day operation on the farm. So, she is a farmer more so than me because that's her day-to-day job.” Reynolds also has two sons who help however they can, which also gives Reynolds the opportunity to teach them everything he knows about farming while they’re young. Reynolds has also expanded his operations since he first started, taking care of up to 75,000+ turkeys at a time. “Just substantially grows every year,” Reynolds says. 

Even though Reynolds’ childhood dream was to become a farmer, he still wouldn’t give up teaching to go into full-time farming. “This is my mission field and if it came to having to choose one or the other, every single time I choose my classroom.” Reynolds loves his students, and greatly appreciates the opportunity to spread his knowledge and love for agriculture. Though Reynolds does it because it’s been his dream, the money plays a huge factor in it as it does with most teachers.

Math teacher Jareth Bailey also has a second job in lawn scaping. He owns his own business, called “JB Lawncare”, and tends to customers' lawns after school and on Saturdays. He’s been running his business for six years now, starting back in 2020. “I've been doing it since 2020 when we went out for covid with school. I started it then, just to help pay for bills,” Bailey says. He’s continued it since then, saying that “Teaching doesn't pay all the bills, so I need that extra money.” 

Bailey’s schedule is always packed, similar to Reynolds. Bailey struggles with having time for his family, saying “I sacrifice a lot of time away from my family.” His sons are often wondering when their father will be home, “They know that I have to do the second job, but they're still wanting me there. They're wanting me at their practices and all that.” The little free time they do spend together, they do Bible studies and eat together before it’s time to go to bed. His younger son, age 9, seems to have an interest in going into business with Bailey, and they spend a lot of time together cutting grass. “We think that one of them will eventually take over the business and grow it hopefully.

Bailey has a passion for teaching, it’s visible in his classroom. He knows that it’s his mission field and wants to do it for as long as God will allow him. With his personal business though, he would be willing to sacrifice his passion for teaching if it meant increasing his business for a more comfortable living situation for his family. “If I could, I would, but I have to do what God's called me to do,” Bailey says. When it comes to his students, Bailey wishes they would understand the sacrifice teachers make for them, saying “All these teachers here are sacrificing their time and everything to help students. We don't do it for the money because it's not good money.” Bailey does what he can with JB Lawncare for the extra money, but the money isn’t always what’s in a person's best interest when they have a second job.

English and journalism teacher Matthew Collier co-owns a business in photography, called “Captured by Collier”, with his wife. Him and his wife have been running their business for 10 years, but Collier has had interests in photography since he was a kid. “I'd always been interested in photography growing up,” Collier said, “And in college, I had pursued it a little bit when it was film cameras.” For Collier, film cameras were a good practice for photography, although they do have their differences. When digital cameras became a thing, Collier had to teach himself how to use them. “Digital cameras came around and I kind of taught myself how to do it.” At first, it was just a simple hobby. He would take photos of his family and post them on social media. Eventually, his photos had enough impact for people to ask him to take photos for them. “And then people started asking, hey would you take pictures of my kids?” Then his wife took an interest, asking Collier how he would take his photos.

Eventually, he and his wife figured they could make a profit out of it, saying “We were like, well, maybe we'll have a little business and just make a little bit of extra money on the side." Over the years, they grew their business and now do weddings and other important events. Collier enjoys the rewarding feeling of photographing special moments, saying “Capturing those candid moments is definitely special.” Photography allows Collier to bring out his creative side, and has gained an ability that he calls the “artist’s eye”. He claims that he got it from following other photographers and “studying other photographers, and seeing what I liked.” Collier says that the artist’s eye isn’t something that can simply just be taught, saying “I can teach you how to use a camera, but having an artist's eye is something you have to gain.” His children have shown an interest in photography as well, saying “They're interested in photography as well. We didn't really push it on them, they just come along.” Collier and his wife would give them cameras so they could stay busy whilst he and his wife dealt with their clients, but his children would actually take photos trying to mimic what they saw their parents doing. “We sometimes give them a camera and give those to our clients as well just because they're like, wow, that's a really cool picture. It was a different angle,” Collier said.

Collier has had to put countless hours of his life into learning and executing good photography, and he still learns new things. This leads to a filled schedule, and has to manage him and his wife’s business alongside teaching and his personal life. Despite the added stress, Collier claims he wouldn’t drop teaching if it meant pursuing photography big time. Teaching brings a stability that photography doesn’t, “I know this is a set salary, a set schedule,” Collier said. 

Teaching is a vital job around the world, yet teachers struggle with the little money they make for the amount of work they put into their job. According to Gallup News, 21% of K-12 grade teachers claim that it is difficult to get by on their income, while 52% of teachers say that they are “just getting by” with their income. Another study done by RAND found that around 66% of teachers believe their income is inadequate, and feel under paid. 

Teachers Justin Reynolds, Jareth Bailey, and Matthew Collier all have second jobs for their own reasons, as well as many other teachers around the world. One thing most have in common though, is that the extra money is a big factor in why they do it.