The Teacher Pay Penalty Has Hit a New High - Trends in Teacher Wages and Compensation Through 2021

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Connor

Report analyzes 18 years of trends in teacher pay and total compensation, using Bureau of Labor Statistics data to compare teachers with nonteacher college-educated counterparts. It shows inflation-adjusted teacher weekly wages have been nearly flat since 1996, while other college graduates’ wages rose substantially. The teacher wage penalty reached a record high in 2021, and total compensation penalties remained large despite benefits advantages. State comparisons indicate penalties exceed 20% in many states.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Key findings

Teacher weekly wages and inflation-adjusted trends

Record-high wage penalty in 2021

Benefits vs. wage penalty in total compensation

State-level wage penalties

Data and relevant information

Wage analysis methodology (CPS-ORG)

Benefits analysis methodology (ECEC)

A note about the COVID-19 pandemic

Comparability concerns for 2020–2021 data

The teacher pay penalty has hit a new high Trends in teacher wages and compensation through 2021 Report • By Sylvia Allegretto • August 16, 2022 O ver the last 18 years, EPI has closely tracked trends in teacher pay. Over these nearly two decades, a picture of increasingly alarming trends has emerged.1 Simply put, teachers are paid less (in weekly wages and total compensation) than their nonteacher college-educated counterparts, and the situation has worsened considerably over time. Prior to the pandemic, the long-trending erosion in the relative wages and total compensation of teachers was already a serious concern. The financial penalty that teachers face discourages college students from entering the teaching profession and makes it difficult for school districts to keep current teachers in the classroom. Trends in teacher pay coupled with pandemic challenges may exacerbate annual shortages of regular and substitute teachers.2 SECTIONS 1. Data and relevant information • 2 2. A note about the COVID-19 pandemic • 3 3. Findings • 4 4. Final thoughts • 11 Notes • 12 References • 13 Providing teachers with compensation commensurate with that of other similarly educated professionals is not simply a matter of fairness but is necessary to improve educational outcomes and foster future economic stability of workers, their families, and communities across the U.S. We explain in greater detail why teacher pay and compensation is so important in a prior report (Allegretto and Mishel 2019) . In this analysis, we add two more years, 2020 and 2021, to our long-running series. • Washington, DC View this report [at](at epi.org/251657)[ epi.org/251657](at epi.org/251657) Key findings • Inflation-adjusted average weekly wages of teachers have been relatively flat since 1996. The average weekly wages of public school teachers (adjusted only for inflation) increased just $29 from 1996 to 2021, from $1,319 to $1,348 (in 2021 dollars) . In contrast, inflation-adjusted weekly wages of other college graduates rose from $1,564 to $2,009 over the same period—a $445 increase. • The relative teacher wage penalty grew to a record high in 2021. It was 23.5% in 2021, up from 6.1% in 1996. The penalty for men rose from 15.1% to 35.2% over that period. Women had a negligible wage penalty of 0.1% in 1996 but faced a wage penalty of 17.1% in 2021. • The benefits advantage for teachers has not been enough to offset the growing wage penalty. The teacher total compensation penalty was 14.2% in 2021 (a 23.5% wage penalty offset by a 9.3% benefits advantage) . The bottom line is that the teacher total compensation penalty grew by 11.5 percentage points from 1993 to 2021. • The relative teacher wage penalty exceeds 20% in 28 states. Teacher weekly wage penalties estimated for each state range from 3.4% in Rhode Island to 35.9% in Colorado. In 28 states, teachers are paid less than 80 cents on the dollar earned by similar college-educated workers in those states. Data and relevant information We use two sources of data, both from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) . We provide a comprehensive discussion of the data and methodologies that produce our teacher weekly wage and total compensation estimates in a prior report (Allegretto and Mishel 2019, Appendix A) . Following is a summary of that discussion. First, we use Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Groups (CPS-ORG) data for the wage analyses. We focus on weekly wages, which avoids comparisons of weekly hours worked or length of the work year (i.e., the “summers off” issue for teachers) between teachers and other college graduates.3 The sample is restricted to full-time workers (working at least 35 hours per week), 18 to 64 years old, with at least a bachelor’s degree. The education restriction is made because teachers today need at least a bachelor’s degree to teach. The sample is further limited to those who reported their wage information directly (i.

FAQs

What does the report conclude about teacher weekly wages over time?

Inflation-adjusted average weekly wages of teachers have been relatively flat since 1996, increasing only modestly by 2021 compared with substantial gains for other college graduates.

How large was the teacher wage penalty in 2021?

The relative teacher wage penalty reached a record high of 23.5% in 2021, up from 6.1% in 1996.

Why does the report discuss benefits when assessing total compensation?

It finds that teacher benefits advantages have not been sufficient to offset the growing wage penalty, leaving a total compensation penalty of 14.2% in 2021.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Connor