Starting Teacher Pay

Despite recent positive trends, teacher salaries continue to lag behind the pay of other college educated professionals. In fact, the Economic Policy Institute’s most recent report on teacher pay finds that:

On average, teachers earned 73.4 cents for every dollar relative to the earnings of similar other professionals in 2023. This is much less than the 93.9 cents on the dollar they made in 1996.

However, this latest analysis of teacher salary benchmarks along with the other Educator Pay Data reported by NEA show modest progress being made in addressing the chronic pay problem that has made it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain teachers and other educators. Notably, in 2023-2024:

• The increase in the average starting teacher salary was higher than it was in 2022-2023 in 27 states in all regions of the country.
• The average starting salary exceeds $50,000 in thirteen states.
• Over 3,600 (or 30%) school districts have a starting salary of at least $50,000.

Good and Bad Ways States Are Addressing Teacher Pay

In previous years’ reports, NEA has highlighted states that have invested in public education and pay teachers across their careers. We have also identified states that have increased salaries the “wrong way” - rather than trying to implement a long-term solution, these states often implement a “band-aid” hoping to make the news, such as increasing teachers’ starting salary and having them languish for years without receiving a salary increase.

• On the positive side, CA, MD, and WA rank in the top ten for both starting and average salaries, showing that teachers are moving across the salary schedule and staying in the classroom. New Mexico’s 2022 historic investment in schools and teachers has resulted in meaningful improvements. For 2023-24, New Mexico ranked 7th in starting and 21st in average salaries, whereas five years ago, New Mexico’s ranks were 39th and 49th, respectively. New Mexico continues its commitment to recruiting and retaining teachers. On March 21, 2025, New Mexico’s state legislature passed legislation to increase teacher salaries by $5,000 at all levels of experience. On April 10, 2025, New Mexico’s governor signed the bill into law.
• Conversely, because of the LEARNS Act, Arkansas is not only not hurting its teachers but is also forcing school districts to deal with unnecessary administrative uncertainty. Florida, which enacted a minimum starting salary in 2020, ranks 50th in average salary in this year’s Rankings and Estimates report. The state’s ranking has dropped since forcing this policy on school districts. In 2020, the state ranked 49th.

Teachers in nine out of the top ten states with the highest average starting salaries were all covered by comprehensive collective bargaining statutes. 

The one exception was Utah, which ranked 5th in average starting salary. Utah had permissive bargaining, where, despite no law, school districts and local unions negotiated significant pay increases. However, recently the state legislature passed a bill that will ban collective bargaining for all public employees, effective July 1, 2025. Utah now becomes the seventh state to prohibit public sector collective bargaining, destroying the collaborative model that characterized education negotiations for decades. It remains to be seen how this prohibition in bargaining rights will impact teacher salaries and teacher shortages.  

These anti-educator policies are worsening the teacher shortage, afflicting schools in many states. Disrespecting veteran educators, attacking unions and collective bargaining, and dismantling public education are not policies that serve the public good, and specifically students. Instead, good policies support a public education system, foster student learning, and invest in all educators.