Teaching has long been viewed as a low-paid job, but there’s more to teachers’ compensation than just take-home paychecks.
“Although teaching is a profession, the way that teachers are paid looks a lot more like the way we pay blue-collar workers in the United States,” said Jacob Vigdor, a professor of public policy and governance at the University of Washington.
What exactly does that look like? We spoke with experts to break down how teachers are paid.
How much do teachers make?
The average base salary for teachers is $61,800, according to 2020-21 data from the National Center for Education Statistics—the most recent federal dataset available. But teacher pay varies widely by state. Although its findings differ slightly from the federal data, the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, releases an annual ranking of state salaries. According to 2024 data, California has the highest average teacher salary at an estimated of $100,789, compared to $53,915 in Florida, the state with the lowest average teacher salary.
Do teachers get paid in the summer?
Although teachers don’t work during the summer, some school districts give teachers a choice between receiving their annual salary over the 10 months of the school year or spreading paychecks out over a full year.
Are teachers underpaid?
Teachers are paid less than comparable workers with similar education levels, according to the Economic Policy Institute. More teachers also report frequent job-related stress and symptoms of depression than similar workers. On average, teachers work 10 more hours per week than comparable professionals.
When asked about their desired salary in a nationally representative survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in November 2023, teachers requested a 31 percent raise—from a median salary of $65,000 to $85,000.
However, non-wage benefits as a share of total compensation are more important for teachers than other professionals. Those benefits can include prepaid insurance premiums and pensions.
How do teachers get raises?
Most school districts have what’s known as a “step and lane” salary schedule for teachers. These grids specify how much teachers earn based on years of experience (“steps”) and levels of education (“lanes”).
Teachers earn a “step” increase for each additional year of experience, with many teachers often peaking with the highest “step” at around age 55. Additional education—such as a master’s or doctoral degree—into a higher pay “lane.” Some districts also offer these raises for earning a certain number of credit hours of professional development.
There are at least 14 states with statewide teacher salary schedules, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality and Education Week reporting. But those schedules represent the minimum that districts have to pay their teachers. Teacher salary is locally determined, so affluent districts often pay their teachers more than poorer districts. Typically, teachers cannot negotiate a raise outside of their district’s salary schedule.
Districts whose teachers are unionized negotiate new contracts periodically, which include revisions to the salary schedule. According to a 2024 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, strikes are associated with an 8 percent increase in teacher pay. Striking is illegal in many states, but those laws don’t always prevent teachers from walking out.
What about high-performing teachers?
Some districts give teachers extra pay when their students do well academically. But research has yielded mixed results on how those initiatives affect student achievement.
The effectiveness of performance pay may depend on how it’s implemented. A 2021 analysis of nearly 40 studies of performance-pay programs found that the programs with the biggest effect included professional development and significant incentives. They also based teachers’ pay increases on multiple measures of teacher effectiveness.
Depending on the district, teachers who take on extra responsibilities, like serving as a team leader or a coach, can also receive an additional stipend.
How do teacher pensions work?
As of 2020, 36 states and the District of Columbia have a defined-benefit pension plan as the default retirement option for teachers, according to Bellwether Education Partners. The main feature of these plans is that they promise a specific payout to teachers upon retirement, determined by a formula, rather than by investment returns.
By contrast, payouts under defined-contribution plans, such as 401(k) accounts common in the private sector, are based on each teacher’s individual investment decisions. Only three states have those plans as the default for their teachers.
Each state sets the rules for its teacher-pension plan, including the following factors:
- Vesting requirements: Teachers must teach a minimum number of years, usually between five and 10, in order to qualify for benefits. Leaving before this benchmark means they forfeit part or all of the benefit.
- Required contributions: Most states require teachers to pay a portion of their salary into the pension system.
- Retirement point: States set different points at which teachers can retire and begin to draw down benefits. Usually, they are based on a combination of age and years of service. For example, a “rule of 80” means that teachers receive full benefits when their age plus years of service equals 80.
- Formula: The formula determines the benefit payout. It is typically based on the teacher’s final average salary (usually calculated over a three- or five-year period), times the number of years of service, times a multiplier, usually between 1 and 2.5 percent.
For example, under a system with a 2.5 percent multiplier: A teacher retiring with a final average salary of $80,000 and 25 years of service would collect a pension of $50,000 annually.
Thus, what a teacher actually collects depends on when the teacher leaves the profession or chooses to retire.
Typically, pensions become more generous as teachers near the retirement point with many years of experience, which is why they are sometimes said to be backloaded. Teachers who move to another state or leave the profession before reaching retirement age can sacrifice significant pension wealth.
A few cities—among them Chicago, Kansas City, New York City, and St. Louis—have their own teacher-pension plans separate from those in the state.
Some states offer teachers a choice of a defined-benefit or defined-contribution plan. Other states use a hybrid plan combining features of both, or enroll all new teachers in a different plan from veterans.
How do employers pay for teacher pensions?
Like other employers, school districts consider total teacher compensation by adding salary and benefits, including pension contributions. The difference comes in what these contributions actually mean in real terms.
In 401(k)-style plans, the contributions belong to the teacher once he or she is vested in the plan. But under a defined-benefit plan, the contributions are pooled to meet the plan’s current and future obligations and are managed and invested by a board. In this way, teacher pensions are a type of deferred compensation.
Many state plans have unfunded liabilities because states have not paid enough into the system to meet all current and future obligations. This means that some of the money districts contribute to the pension actually goes toward paying down accrued debt, not benefit obligations. In 2022, according to a data analysis by the Equable Institute, which researches public pensions and advocates for improving them, teacher pension plans were 75.7 percent fully funded, and unfunded liabilities from those plans amounted to $816 billion.
Do teachers get Social Security?
Not all do. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia exclude at least some teachers from Social Security. That means about 40 percent of public school teachers, or 1.2 million, are not covered under Social Security, according to a 2019 analysis from Bellwether Education Partners. Most of these states had pension plans that predated the creation of Social Security in the 1930s. States were offered the chance to join the program later, but not all of them did.
States that do not enroll teachers in Social Security sometimes have more generous pension plans. Nevertheless, many advocates fear that not having Social Security as a support leaves teachers vulnerable in their retirement.
Do teachers pay for health insurance premiums?
Most teachers participate in a health insurance plan offered by their districts. According to a 2013 analysis, insurance costs for districts are higher than for private-sector employers.
Across the nation, teachers pay on average 16 percent of the plan premiums for individual coverage, lower than the 20 percent average for workers in private industry. But for family coverage, teachers pay 35 percent of the premium, while private-sector workers pay 32 percent, according to 2024 data from the Labor Department.
With rising health care costs, teachers have been expected to foot more of the bill for their health care. In West Virginia, for example, rising health insurance premiums were a major sticking point that led to the nine-day strike in 2018. (To end the strike, the governor agreed to freeze health care premiums and rates for 16 months until a more permanent solution could be reached.)
In 2022, teachers paid 14 percent more for their health benefits than in 2018, according to a National Council on Teacher Quality report. During that same time period, teacher salaries increased 10 percent.
How many days off do teachers have?
Thirty-six states set a minimum number of leave days for teachers—the most common policy is at least 10 paid sick days. What leave is offered and what teachers actually use are very different, however, with teachers in Education Week’s 2024 State of Teaching survey reporting only taking four days off during the school year.
Most educators don’t have access to paid parental leave, but there have been recent pushes to change that in some states and districts. All teachers can qualify for 12 weeks of unpaid time off under the Family Medical Leave Act if they’ve been working for at least a year, but many teachers unable to afford to take unpaid leave have had to come back to the classroom before they were ready. When districts offer parental leave, the length of the leave varies widely. The National Council on Teacher Quality’s analysis of the policies of 148 districts in 2022 found that 18 percent offered full or partially paid parental leave, ranging from one day to five months. Most districts offered less than a month of leave.
