Teachers still feel overworked and underpaid, but some signs suggest things may be slowly improving.
A nationally representative survey from the RAND Corporation released June 24 revealed that while teachers continue to receive lower pay and feel more burnout than adults in other professions, the percentage of teachers reporting burnout has declined.
The share of teachers intending to leave their jobs fell to 16%—a six-point drop from last year. However, Black teachers remain far more likely to say they plan to leave than white teachers, and they report lower pay and more symptoms of depression than their white counterparts.
Ashley Woo, an associate policy researcher with RAND who has worked on this annual survey since its 2021 launch, said that the disparities in intention to leave the profession raise “a lot of concerns.” Research shows that all students, especially Black students, benefit from having Black teachers, Woo noted.
“Not everyone who says that they’re likely to leave is actually going to leave,” Woo said. “Even though it’s not necessarily an indicator of attrition, I think it’s an indicator of potential attrition and also just general dissatisfaction.”
The survey, conducted between January and early March this year, gathered responses from over 1,400 K-12 teachers and 500 similarly employed adults—defined as bachelor’s degree holders, ages 18–65, working full-time in other fields.
The findings come amid ongoing concerns over teacher burnout, retention challenges, and stagnant pay.
Racial and gender pay gaps persist
On average, Black teachers earned $4,400 less than white teachers, and female teachers earned $7,000 less than male teachers. The racial pay gap persisted even after controlling for years of experience, gender, and education level.
“One of the reasons that we see this kind of racial disparity is possibly because of how Black teachers are geographically distributed,” Woo said.
One likely contributor: Black teachers are more likely to live in states that prohibit collective bargaining. Their salaries are nearly 30% lower than teachers in states that require collective bargaining.
While Black teachers make up 6% of public school teachers nationwide, they account for up to 20% of teachers in some Southern states—such as Georgia and North Carolina—that prohibit collective bargaining, according to a 2024 report from RAND.
Teachers in states that prohibit collective bargaining also reported lower pay raises, RAND reported.
Black teachers were also less likely to say that their pay was adequate. Still, their intent to leave decreased seven percentage points from last year.
Three studies cited in the report suggest that low pay and dissatisfaction—more than well-being—drive Black teachers’ higher intent to leave. In fact, Black teachers generally reported comparable or better well-being than their peers.
While low pay may be the primary factor, Woo noted that other factors, such as working conditions, also influence teacher retention. Schools need to ensure teachers are fairly compensated and adequately supported, she added.
The 2024 Education Week State of Teaching survey found that Black teachers reported the highest morale of any racial group, but also worked more hours and were less likely to see themselves as career educators.
RAND found that Hispanic teachers also showed a higher intent to leave than white teachers, consistent with their lower well-being across every measure.
Low pay drives stress and attrition
Across all groups, teacher base salaries increased slightly from last year. The average pay reached $73,000—still about $30,000 less than similarly educated working adults. This so-called “teacher pay penalty” has widened over the past several decades.
The growing gap is partly due to smaller pay raises. Teachers received an average increase of $2,000—about 3%—barely outpacing 2024’s 2.9% inflation rate.
Meanwhile, many districts are struggling to pay teachers to financially compensate them for participation in grant-funded programs due to federal funding cuts.
Low pay remains a main stressor, along with student behavior, low salaries, administrative work, supporting students’ mental health, and working beyond teacher contract hours.
For school leaders, Woo emphasized the importance of helping teachers complete their work within contracted hours. More than 80% of teachers work beyond their contracted hours, averaging 10 extra hours per week—yet only half were satisfied with their workload.
If teachers spend less time on unpaid labor, Woo said they can “focus on the core aspects of their job.”
Teacher burnout has decreased, but is still worse than other jobs
The share of teachers reporting burnout fell from 60% in 2024 to 53% this year. But stress and depression symptoms remained largely unchanged, and more teachers reported frequent job-related stress.
In a 2024 working paper from Brown University, researchers suggested that the teaching profession is in its worst state in 50 years. However, the 2025 Education Week State of Teaching survey and other surveys suggest teacher well-being has stabilized since 2023.
Teachers continue to fare worse than other working adults on all four well-being measures, a trend that has persisted in recent years.
Lower well-being is closely linked to higher intent to leave, Woo said.
Female teachers—who make up the majority of the educator workforce—reported lower well-being than male teachers on three of four metrics. RAND plans to study these persistent gender disparities in upcoming research.
