澳门跑狗论坛

Teaching Profession Data

A $60K Starting Salary for Teachers? Not a Single State Meets the Bar

By Libby Stanford 鈥 February 24, 2023 1 min read
Teacher at a chalkboard.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Lawmakers across the political spectrum have made raising teacher pay a top priority in 2023.

Democrats in both the U.S. House and Senate have introduced bills aiming to get teachers to a $60,000 base salary. President Joe Biden called on lawmakers to give public school teachers a raise during his State of the Union address earlier this month. And Republican governors, including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, have touted proposals to raise teacher pay while in office.

鈥淲e should ensure that parents continue to play an active role in their kids鈥 education, and we should ensure that teachers are paid what they deserve,鈥 Reeves, whose state ranks last in teacher pay, said in his state of the state address on Jan. 30. 鈥淚t is my firm belief that Mississippi has some of the best teachers in the nation, and their salaries should reflect that.鈥

The attention on teacher salaries comes as many school districts are struggling to hire new teachers or bring prospective teachers into the profession. It also follows decades of stagnation on teacher salaries, with those in the profession often earning far less than others with similar education levels.

But where exactly does teacher pay stand? 澳门跑狗论坛 compiled the latest figures to find out.

Average teacher salaries have barely risen since the 1990s when adjusted for inflation.

$65,090   The average public school teacher salary in the 2020-21 school year, the most recent year reported by the . The 2020-21 salary is actually $519 lower than the 2019-20 average salary when inflation is taken into account.

$83   How much average public school teacher pay has risen since the 1989-90 school year, when adjusted for inflation.

$1,278   How much less teachers made on average during the 2020-21 school year than a decade earlier.

$222   The difference in average pay between secondary and elementary school teachers. Secondary school teachers made $63,959 on average in the 2016-17 school year, the last year of data available for that level. Elementary teachers earned $63,737 that school year.

$54,000   The expected median salary for education majors with bachelor鈥檚 degrees by the time they reach age 59, according to . That number is lower than it is for all other majors. Education majors would need a graduate degree to achieve the median earnings of an average person with a bachelor鈥檚 degree, according to the study.

27   The number of years it takes on average for a teacher with a bachelor鈥檚 degree to make $75,000, according to a . It would take 24 years for a teacher with a master鈥檚 degree to reach $75,000.

Teacher pay varies widely by state and region.

22   The number of states that paid teachers an average of at least $60,000 in 2020-21, according to data from the . Democratic lawmakers have pointed to $60,000 as the ideal minimum salary for teachers in bills in both the House and the Senate.

0   The number of states where teachers earned a starting salary of at least $60,000 in 2020-21, according to an . Montana had the lowest starting salary that year, at $32,495, and Washington, D.C., had the highest, at $56,313.

$66,432   NEA鈥檚 projected 2021-22 average teacher salary, which would be a 1.8 percent increase over the association's estimated 2020-21 average of $65,293.

17   The number of governors who mentioned raising teacher pay in their 2023 state of the state speeches, , an organization that researches and tracks education policy.

New York teachers earn the most.

$90,222   The average salary for teachers living in New York in 2020-21, according to the NEA. The salary is the highest average salary, followed by Massachusetts鈥, with an $86,755 average salary in 2020-21.

$46,862   The average salary for teachers living in Mississippi in 2020-21, which is the lowest average salary for that year, according to the NEA. Mississippi lawmakers passed the state鈥檚 largest increase to starting salaries last year with a $5,140 bonus that would increase teachers鈥 starting salaries from $37,123 to $41,638, . The next lowest average salary is in South Dakota with $49,547.

$50,000-$60,000   The pay range that the majority of states fell into in 2020-21, according to the NEA. There were 27 states with average teacher salaries in this range that year.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the March 15, 2023 edition of 澳门跑狗论坛 as A $60K Starting Salary For Teachers? Not a Single State Meets the Bar

Events

Artificial Intelligence K-12 Essentials Forum Big AI Questions for Schools. How They Should Respond鈥
Join this free virtual event to unpack some of the big questions around the use of AI in K-12 education.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of 澳门跑狗论坛's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in Schools
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of 澳门跑狗论坛's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Science Webinar
Spark Minds, Reignite Students & Teachers: STEM鈥檚 Role in Supporting Presence and Engagement
Is your district struggling with chronic absenteeism? Discover how STEM can reignite students' and teachers' passion for learning.
Content provided by 

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide 鈥 elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Teaching Profession The Holiday Gifts Teachers Actually Want (Hint: Skip the Mugs)
We asked educators what they actually want from students for the holidays.
1 min read
Image of a homemade card, school supplies, and a plant.
Collage via Canva
Teaching Profession The Top 10 Slang Terms Teachers Never Want to Hear Again, Explained
A quick guide to student slang that teachers love to hate.
2 min read
Photo of BINGO card with buzzwords.
澳门跑狗论坛 + Getty
Teaching Profession In Their Own Words Why This Teacher Fought Back Against a Law Curbing Teachers' Unions
A high school social studies teacher talks about why he joined the lawsuit against Wisconsin's Act 10.
7 min read
Mary Kay Baum joins hundreds of labor union members at a rally to protest collective bargaining restrictions at the Wisconsin State Capitol Building in Madison, Wis., Aug. 25, 2011. Matthew Ziebarth, a high school social studies teacher in Beaver Dam, joined a lawsuit to overturn the law.
Mary Kay Baum joins hundreds of labor union members at a rally to protest collective bargaining restrictions at the Wisconsin State Capitol Building in Madison, Wis., Aug. 25, 2011. Matthew Ziebarth, a high school social studies teacher in Beaver Dam, joined a lawsuit to overturn the law.
John Hart/Wisconsin State Journal via AP
Teaching Profession What the Research Says The Teaching Pool Isn't Diversifying As Quickly as Other Workers. Why?
Teachers used to be more diverse than their college-educated peers. New national and state data show how that's changing.
3 min read
A teacher talks with seventh graders during a lesson.
Black and Hispanic teachers are diversifying the workforce more slowly than their students or other similar professions.
Allison Shelley for All4Ed