Jamie Torres spent the first three years of her teaching career “practically being homeless.” Her starting salary of $38,000 in 2018 wasn’t enough to afford rent in the neighborhoods near where she taught in Sante Fe, New Mexico, so she bunked with family members for months at a time or stayed with friends.
“I tried looking around everywhere for a house. The lowest place I could find for even a studio here in Santa Fe at that time was roughly around like $1,300,” she said. “So, on a first-year teaching salary, it was literally impossible for me as a single adult to afford rent in Santa Fe.”
Torres, a special education teacher, is one of hundreds of educators across Sante Fe whose paycheck will get a boost this year after New Mexico legislators voted to increase teacher pay. Her salary will climb 20 percent, from $50,000 to $60,000, she said, calling the increase “definitely a really good first step.”
