The median personal and household incomes in 2016 were $31k and $59k, so at $38k you're starting your career well ahead of the median for US citizens of all ages. I happen to think teachers should be paid much more because of the importance of what they do, i.e. I think they're paid less than their potential worth, but I don't think it makes sense to paint teachers as low-earners in an absolute sense. Unless the point is that the median american is a low-earner in an absolute sense, which is fair enough.

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p... https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p...