Teachers’ salaries have risen so slowly over the last few decades that they actually suffer from a huge “penalty wage gap”.
1. Do teachers really need a raise?
In many school districts, the answer is yes.
According to a 2022 study by the Economic Policy Institute — a nonprofit, impartial think-tank focused on the needs of low- and middle-income workers — the “wage penalty” for teachers — how much less teachers earn than comparable workers — is grown from 6.1% in 1996 to 23.5% in 2021. Put another way, the average weekly wages of public school teachers — adjusted for inflation — increased just $29 from 1996 to 2021, from $1,319 to $1,348 in 2021. Meanwhile, other college graduates’ inflation-adjusted weekly wages increased by $445 over the same period, from $1,564 to $2,009.
Wage disparities among teachers vary greatly from state to state, but in no state does the teacher pay the same or more than other college graduates.
Adding benefits to the analysis does not change the picture. Although teachers generally receive a higher proportion of their pay in benefits than other professionals—usually health insurance and pensions—this disparity does not offset the growing loss of teachers’ wages. The “total compensation penalty” for teachers reached 14.2% in 2021. This is a 23.5% pay penalty offset by a 9.3% performance benefit. According to the Economic Policy Institute analysis, total teacher compensation increased by 11.5 percentage points from 1993 to 2021.
2. Where do teacher raises usually come from?
Public school teachers’ salaries are generally set by local school districts. Districts establish pay plans, where teachers’ base pay is determined by years of teaching experience and educational credentials or graduate credit hours. Contracts are negotiated at the district level so that teachers at different schools within a district are covered by the same pay scale.
These schedules, sometimes referred to as “step-and-lane” systems, can vary significantly from district to district. District contracts may vary in annual pay increases for experience or the relative importance given to experience versus credentials. Contracts may grant less experienced teachers larger annual salary increases than experienced teachers, or the opposite may be true.
where does the money come from A full 93% of school districts’ operating income comes from state and local sources. Nationally, states average 47% and localities 46%.
Growing concerns about low teacher salaries have prompted many states to enact funds to raise local pay plans across the board. In 2021, 25 states enacted or introduced legislation to increase teachers’ salaries. Ten of these states have statewide salary plans for teachers, while eight have minimum salary requirements for teachers.
Among states with federal salary plans, government initiatives have raised wages and expanded eligibility for bonuses. In states with minimum wage requirements, legislatures attempted to raise these minimum wages and provide incentives for districts to increase wages across the board. Elsewhere, government efforts have focused on across-the-board pay increases for teachers.
Despite these government efforts, however, teacher salaries in many states continue to lag significantly behind other professional salaries.
3. Can federal funds be used?
No, not as a long-term solution to the problem of low teacher salaries. Federal funding is too limited in amount and there is not enough flexibility to fund general salary increases for teachers.
The federal government provides about 7% of K-12 revenue, and the money is earmarked for specific programs. In general, these funds are intended to supplement funding for schools with at-risk youth, including children with learning disabilities or children from low-income households.
During recent economic downturns — the Great Recession of 2008 and the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 — the federal government provided emergency aid to K-12 schools to supplement reduced state and local revenues. The COVID relief has been exceptionally significant, with America’s rescue plan providing $190 billion to school districts.
While this federal grant is unprecedented in size, it has two major limitations: It is a one-time grant and not all districts participate. Districts that receive these funds must be careful not to include them in their annual operating budget without solid plans for state or local replacement funds.
Many districts have announced plans to use these federal funds to hire new teachers or pay teacher bonuses for additional work to mitigate the learning loss related to COVID. By paying bonuses to current teachers, teachers would avoid having to be laid off when emergency aid ran out.
In addition, a revised American Teacher Act was presented to Congress. The bill would introduce a four-year grant program for states to encourage local counties to raise teachers’ base salaries. The majority of these funds would go to districts with teacher salaries under $60,000.
The bill would award grants to states that enact and enforce laws setting a statewide minimum salary for teachers of $60,000. Details continue to be worked out, including refining the definition of a “teacher” to avoid paying unqualified staff with federal funds. The bill would address an urgent issue, but state participation would be voluntary and the program would expire in four years. And passage is uncertain.
In order to achieve lasting salary increases for teachers, they must take place in state capitals and local school boards.
Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Wayne State University
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