Gains in Teacher Pay May Not be Enough to Ease Shortages

As prices have grown faster than paychecks, the benefits of salary increases have been neutralized. To boost standards of living, increases in pay need to consistently exceed the rate of inflation.

Most educators are still accustomed to at best marginal raises. Making ends meet continues to be a challenge and teachers are often forced to take on extra jobs. Sometimes they move to better-paying districts. Frequently they may decide to exit the profession altogether, their dissatisfaction compounded by a lack of support and poor working conditions.

"While some elected leaders are doing what is right," said NEA President Becky Pringle, "too many students remain in schools where decision-makers have driven away quality educators by failing to provide competitive salaries and support, disrespecting the profession, and placing extraordinary pressure on individual educators to do more and more with less and less."

According to the Rankings and Estimates report, the highest average teacher salaries are found in California ($95,160), New York ($92,696) and Massachusetts ($92,307). The lowest salaries are in West Virginia ($52,870), Florida ($53,098), and South Dakota ($53,153).

The Salary Benchmark Report, which provides information from over 12,000 local school districts on starting teacher salaries and salaries at other points of the teaching career continuum, reveals that on average, the top of the teacher pay scale is $81,026. But reaching that level usually requires a Ph.D. or 15 to 30 graduate credit hours beyond a master's degree, and often requires 25 to 30 years of professional teaching experience.

Teacher salaries top out over $100,000 in only 16.6 percent of U.S. school districts.

In most districts, new teachers will have to climb a tall ladder to get anywhere near the top of the salary schedule. A staggering 77 percent of school districts still pay a starting salary below $50,000 and 28.6 percent start out teachers at less than $40,000.

Education support professionals (ESPs) -school bus drivers, cafeteria workers, paraeducators, custodial workers, clerical staff and others-are facing even greater financial pressures. Almost 38 percent of all full-time K-12 support professionals earn less than $25,000 annually. Again, skyrocketing cost of living has nullified any gains in their wages.

According to the NEA ESP earnings report, average earnings for support staff rose from $31,223 in 2013‐14 to $35,995 in 2022‐23. However, when adjusted for inflation, the average earnings for ESP fell from $31,223 to $28,149 in constant 2014 dollars.

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