Asking someone how much money they make has usually been considered a rude question. Although most people keep this information private, some occupations have public records of their annual income. In most counties throughout the country, teachers salaries are posted on the internet, open to the public.

A recent Washington Post article "What Washingtonians Make" published a profile of Washington residents' salaries. Included in the article were salaries of school superintendents, teachers and teachers' aids throughout the region.

"Our salaries come from the taxpayers’ money, therefore the salaries are available for the public due to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)," administrator Michael Burch said.

By simply typing into a search engine, "FCPS teacher salary", any curious person can compare the salaries of teachers in the county. Although it is legal for these salaries to be published online, some students believe the information should be more private.

"I feel like it's an invasion of privacy to post the teachers salaries," junior Kaeun Ji said. "I’m sure some teachers won’t be bothered by it, but others will feel that it’s inappropriate.”

Burch said that the posted teachers salaries are beneficial for prospective employees to research the annual income of teachers in a certain county. Salary scales are posted on the internet comparing the minimum, midpoint and maximum income of counties throughout Virginia.

Compared to other counties in the state, Fairfax County has the second highest salary at the bachelor's and master's degree level and sixth at the maximum salary level.

"As the cost of living rises, it would be nice to pay teachers more, but so much goes into increasing salaries," Burch said.

Although this statistic is not promising, teachers seem to be grateful for the benefits of working as a teacher in Fairfax County.

"Who wouldn't want to be paid more than what they make now?" history teacher Charles Koch said. "However, if you look at the benefits aside from salary, we are pretty fairly compensated."