In an era of stories about teacher layoffs and teacher unions protesting for better pay and benefits, it's assumed that this profession gets the short end of the wage stick when it comes to serving in public schools.

The public commonly accepts that public school teachers are "desperately underpaid," in the words of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and that raising teacher pay should be a priority of education reform. But is this true?

Many public workers are overpaid relative to their private sector counterparts, especially in large, unionized states such as Wisconsin, Ohio and California. This may sound like a controversial claim, but it shouldn't. A consensus is building about the need for reform.

Public school teacher compensation is roughly 50 percent above private sector levels. In addition to merit pay, fundamental reforms to help schools hire, promote and fire teachers according to the best interests of students is needed.

We estimate that public-school teachers receive total compensation roughly 50 percent higher than they would likely receive in the private sector.

The implication of Occupy Wall Street's demand is that teachers are paid far too little given their skills. The opposite is actually true: According to our analysis of salaries, fringe benefits and job security, most public school teachers are paid considerably more than what they could earn in private-sector jobs.

Secretary Arne Duncan, who argues that policymakers should use "data to drive reform," strongly believes that education policy should be "framed by evidence." We agree.

The average teacher working in a public school today receives total compensation roughly 52 percent higher than what he or she would receive in private-sector employment.