The average teacher salary has increased since last year, but when considering inflation, teachers are taking home less than they did a decade ago, according to the nation’s largest teachers’ union.
The average teacher salary during the 2024-25 school year is $74,177, a 3% increase from the year before, the National Education Association estimates in a new report. The NEA’s annual report reviews and ranks educator pay and school funding for K-12 schools and colleges across states.
The figure marks the largest year-over-year pay increase in the last decade, continuing growth from last year. From 2015-16 to 2024-25, teacher salaries increased by 27%, but when adjusting for inflation, there was a deficit of 5.1%.
Teacher salaries vary significantly by state. In California, the average salary for this school year is an estimated $103,379, while in Mississippi, it’s $55,086.
The NEA report also highlighted a 4.4% increase in average pay for starting teacher salaries, marking the largest growth in 15 years.
The national average starting teacher salary is $46,526. However, considering inflation again, the adjusted starting salary is $3,728 below what the average beginning teacher took home in 2008-09.
“In some states, educators are seeing long-overdue pay increases thanks to union-led advocacy,” said NEA President Becky Pringle in a press release. “But the Trump administration’s plans to gut public education will rip funding from public schools and roll back these very same gains to help provide competitive and professional pay to educators.”
Some states have seen significant pay increases
In states with collective bargaining rights, teachers earn 24% more on average than in states that don’t permit teachers to bargain, according to the national union.
Ninety-six percent of school districts with teacher salaries that surpass $100,000 are in states with collective bargaining laws, the NEA concluded.
In recent years, many states have given their teachers a raise. The NEA report highlighted New Mexico, which jumped from 39th to 7th in the country on starting salaries and 49th to 21st on average teacher pay within the last five years. The state gave teachers a significant pay raise in 2022, and this April, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, signed a bill to increase minimum teacher salaries by $5,000 for each licensure tier.
New Mexico’s average teacher salary in the 2024-25 school year is estimated to be $69,736, a 10% increase from the state’s average salary in 2015-16 and well above the national inflation-adjusted growth rate.
California, New York, and the District of Columbia top this year’s salary rankings, while Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana are at the bottom. Those with the highest salary rankings tend to coincide with the highest cost of living, and those at the bottom have among the lowest cost of living.
The District of Columbia’s schools, as well as Delaware and Maine, had the largest increase in teacher pay year-over-year.
One-third of school districts have starting salaries above $50,000
The percentage of school districts that pay at least $50,000 as a starting salary increased by 7 percentage points from the prior year, reaching 15 states in 2023-24.
An even larger jump was made among school districts that offer $60,000 as a starting salary—a 66% increase from the previous year.
At the same time, the number of school districts with a $40,000 starting teacher salary dropped by 10 percentage points to 16.6%.
Despite the increase in starting salaries, 37% of teachers say they have a moderate or serious problem making a living wage, and 40% hold more than one job, according to a 2024 survey of educators, conducted by the research firm SSRS on behalf of the NEA.
The NEA report also tracks compensation for education support professionals, including paraprofessionals or classroom aides.
Full-time education support professionals working in K-12 schools made an average of $34,954 in the 2023–24 school year. ESPs earn 9% less than they did 10 years ago, when adjusting for inflation, according to the NEA report.
The NEA report was published ahead of Teacher Appreciation Week, which is May 5-9. Pringle said in a press release: “There’s no greater tribute to teachers than standing up for public education.”
