Educational Instruction and Library

Geography Teachers, Postsecondary

Teach courses in geography. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

MAY 2025 · OCCUPATIONAL WAGES

A wage reference for United States.

Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.

Source wage group: Geography Teachers, Postsecondary

This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Geography Teachers, Postsecondary. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.

May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.

Median annual wage$97,590USD per year · Published 50th percentile

Annual wage thresholds

USD per year

Published occupational wage percentiles · United States · May 2025
PercentileAnnual wage (USD/year)Hourly wage (USD/hour)
10th$52,550Not published
25th$74,690Not published
50th · Median$97,590Not published
75th$123,900Not published
90th$165,460Not published

“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.

PUT A WAGE IN CONTEXT

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Compare an entered wage with the published thresholds for United States. Your entry stays on this page.

This compares wage amounts to published percentile thresholds. It does not estimate your personal percentile, adjust for your experience, or compare total compensation. Match the wage definition and occupation group before using the result.

THE WORK BEHIND THE TITLE

What this career involves.

Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.

Selected title examples

Assistant ProfessorAssociate ProfessorCartography ProfessorCartography TeacherCollege Faculty MemberCollege ProfessorCultural Geography Faculty MemberGeographic Information Systems Faculty Member (GIS Faculty Member)Geographic Information Systems Professor (GIS Professor)Geography Faculty MemberGeography InstructorGeography Professor
Expand more title examples (10)
Geomatics ProfessorGeospatial InstructorHuman Geography Faculty MemberHuman Geography InstructorHuman Geography ProfessorInstructorLecturerPhysical Geography ProfessorProfessorUniversity Faculty Member

Typical tasks

  • Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
  • Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as urbanization, environmental systems, and cultural geography.
  • Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in professional journals, books, or electronic media.
  • Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
  • Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
  • Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
Expand more tasks (19)
  • Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
  • Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
  • Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
  • Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
  • Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
  • Supervise students' laboratory and field work.
  • Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
  • Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.
  • Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
  • Perform spatial analysis and modeling using geographic information system techniques.
  • Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.
  • Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
  • Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks.
  • Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head.
  • Maintain geographic information systems laboratories, performing duties such as updating software.
  • Participate in campus and community events.
  • Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.
  • Provide professional consulting services to government or industry.
  • Act as advisers to student organizations.

Skills used in this work

Instructing
Teaching others how to do something.
Speaking
Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Writing
Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
Active Listening
Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Reading Comprehension
Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
Active Learning
Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
Expand more skills (29)
Complex Problem Solving
Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
Critical Thinking
Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
Learning Strategies
Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
Judgment and Decision Making
Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
Time Management
Managing one's own time and the time of others.
Monitoring
Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
Science
Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
Social Perceptiveness
Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
Coordination
Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
Persuasion
Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
Systems Analysis
Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
Management of Personnel Resources
Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
Negotiation
Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
Service Orientation
Actively looking for ways to help people.
Systems Evaluation
Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
Mathematics
Using mathematics to solve problems.
Operations Analysis
Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
Management of Financial Resources
Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
Management of Material Resources
Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
Programming
Writing computer programs for various purposes.
Technology Design
Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
Operations Monitoring
Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
Quality Control Analysis
Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
Equipment Maintenance
Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
Equipment Selection
Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
Installation
Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
Operation and Control
Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
Repairing
Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
Troubleshooting
Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
FIND YOUR MARKET

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United States wage reference

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Available links reflect retained source coverage for this career.

TURN CONTEXT INTO A NEXT STEP

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Look at current disclosed job ranges, explore supported employer salary evidence, or build a proposed hiring range with your own assumptions.

Sources and citation.

Cite this page: Wages.fyi, “Geography Teachers, Postsecondary career and wage guide.” Link to this Wages.fyi page

This page includes information from the O*NET® 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Wages.fyi has selected and organized this information and added wage navigation and explanations. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. Database license and attribution requirements.

Official occupation profile · Official wage reference . Wage reference: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service. Source data and publication dates can differ from the date this page is accessed.