Teachers and Teaching - Teacher Salary Trends

Teachers are paid more than the average worker and more than other government workers. The data shown are averages. Some teachers make more than average, some obviously less. In some cases, their salaries are far less than the year 2000 average of $41,820. In the 1999-2000 school year, the average salary in 35 states (70%) fell below the national average. The lowest average teacher salary was in South Dakota: $29,072. The highest in this group of 35 was Ohio's $41,713. The state that pays its teachers the highest salary overall was Connecticut. The average teacher salary in that state was $52,410.

Average salaries for public school teachers, in 2000, range from approximately 1.7 to 3.0 times the poverty level for a family of four ($17,463 in 2000). What is the basis for the claim of low teacher salaries?

Is it that teacher salary increases fall below the rate of inflation? No. In most cases since the 1987-1988 school year, salary increases have been at or above the rate of inflation. When they did fall below the inflation rate, the percentage difference was from 0.2% to 1.1%. Since the mid-1990s, annual raises have been increasing: from a low of 2.2% in the 1995-1996 school year up to 3.2% in 1999-2000 school year. However, this was a considerable drop from earlier years. In the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, raises were between 5% and 9% annually (the rate of inflation fluctuated, however, between 1% and 13.3%).

The complaint about low teacher pay is based on comparisons to salaries in other occupations. The next table compares the average beginning teacher salary to the average beginning salary in some of the occupations that have gained employees due to teacher turnover. As a comparison: In the 1999-2000 school year, the average maximum salary for a teacher (not a beginning teacher) with a master's degree was $49,264. This is just a little more than $2,500 above the average beginning salary for someone in a mathematics or statistics profession, who may only have a bachelor's degree.

Average Beginning Salaries (Constant 2000 dollars)

	1980		2000
	Salary	$ above teacher salary	Salary	$ above teacher salary
Liberal arts	26,808	5,321	36,201	8,212
Math or statistics	35,494	14,007	46,744	18,755
Chemistry	34,526	13,039	38,210	10,221
Teaching	21,487	-	27,989	-

The debate about teacher salaries involves more than raw numbers. Much of the debate involves adequate compensation for handling the difficulties that come with the job. Teachers argue that their role involves more than educating their students. In the process of educating, they must also be motivators, social workers, and disciplinarians to 30 to 150 students¹⁵ a year — each student having his own learning style, level of knowledge, and maturity. And some bring with them physical or emotional needs that may hamper their ability to learn.

In the next panel we'll discuss another teacher complaint: large class sizes.

Sources: Nelson, F. Howard. The Research & Information Services Department. American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. Survey & Analysis of Teacher Salary Trends 2000. "Annualized Inflation Rates." Online. Available: http://www.fintrend.com. May 22, 2002. U.S. Bureau of the Census. "Poverty 2000." Online. Available: http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/threshld/thresh00.html. May 22, 2002.