“If I were a single mom—and I have several friends who are single mom teachers—I would not be able to make it on just my salary,” said one Louisiana teacher. Unfortunately, that’s the case for more than one-third of teachers across the state, an echo of the national battle between educators and their salaries.
According to 2022 data from the National Education Association’s “Teacher Salary Benchmarks” survey, the latest available data, the average starting salary for teachers in 2020-21 was $41,770. When adjusted for inflation, it represented a 4% decrease from 2019-20.
Additionally, only 14.6% of school districts offered new teachers at least $50,000, with Missouri and Montana having the nation’s lowest starting salaries.
Nearly two years later, the conversation surrounding teacher compensation continues.
The Louisiana Federation of Teachers, one of the state’s two teachers unions, recently surveyed educators on their compensation and their responsibilities. Louisiana teachers make nearly $3,000 less than average teachers located in the South, NOLA reports, and its impact is reflected in feedback from the survey.
According to the results, 97% of teachers and 98% of staff said their compensation isn’t enough to raise a family, and most are considering abandoning the profession. 37% said they’re working at least one other job as well.
“I have considered declaring bankruptcy,” one teacher wrote. “I cannot stay in this profession unless we receive a 25% raise.”
Respondents also report taking on more duties due to a lack of staff without receiving any additional compensation. 64% of teachers and 43% of staff said they’re taking on more work than required, such as covering additional classes and skipping lunch breaks as a result.
“If we don’t have fair compensation we won’t retain teachers and if we don’t retain teachers the school isn’t able to be a safe, productive space,” one first-grade teacher told NOLA.
A nationwide trend
The state of Missouri, which has historically been one of the lowest-paying states in terms of teacher compensation, passed a historic education bill this week aiming to bump teacher salaries.
Representative Ed Lewis, (R)-Macon and Randolph, the bill’s sponsor, said that under current state statute the minimum salary is only $25,000. He hopes to change that narrative.
“One of the pieces of it has minimum teacher salaries at $38,000, which we would then pay for,” he said, according to KSDK. “The state would pick up 70% of the amount that the local district needed to make sure that their teachers are on the salary schedule. The local district then would only be on the hook for 30% of that.”
The issue is even catching the attention of those outside education. Several prominent CEOs in North Carolina are calling for teachers’ wages to be raised in an effort to improve reading proficiency.
Members of the Business Roundtable requested these changes Tuesday morning in response to the state’s declining reading scores since the pandemic, Axios reports. Pay raises could also help to fill the more than 5,5000 teacher vacancies across the state’s public schools.
Reimagining teacher pay
Recent conversations surrounding teacher pay have led researchers to search for solutions. A recent blog by Dr. Michael Hansen, a senior fellow at the Brown Center on Education Policy and the Herman and George R. Brown Chair in Governance Studies, outlines four ways districts can reform compensation:
- Adjust pay based on teaching quality and responsibilities.
- Pay teachers at a “master’s degree rate.”
- Include preschool teachers (a historically low-wage occupation) in the conversation.
- Compensate teachers in high-needs schools and subjects accordingly.
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