The teacher pay gap is even worse now than it was in the 1990s, a new report finds

Teachers in the U.S. are earning less money compared to similar professions than ever before, according to a report written by Sylvia Allegretto, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, think tanks based in Washington, DC. The report found that, in 2023, teachers on average earned 73.4 cents for every dollar relative to the earnings of "similar professionals," far less than the 93.6 cents they made in 1996.

The widening gap in pay is already producing dire consequences for education as a whole, with decreasing rates of retention and recruitment straining already understaffed schools and overworked teachers.

Average weekly wages for teachers did improve by 1.7%, but the pay penalty — the gap between the weekly wages of teachers, who must hold a college degree to work in public schools, and college graduates in other professions — grew to a record 26.6% this year.

"Providing teachers with compensation commensurate with that of similarly educated and experienced professionals is necessary to retain and attract qualified workers into the teaching profession," the report said, warning that college students, encouraged by their parents, are forgoing teaching careers for better-paying jobs.

The data compiled by Allegretto — which is adjusted for inflation and takes into account the "summers off" issue — shows that the drop in relative compensation has been even more precipitous for female teachers, decreasing from a 3.3% premium pre-1994 to a penalty of 21.4% in 2023. While much of this is related to the expansion of professional opportunities for women, who once formed a captive labor pool of sorts for teaching jobs, such an exodus from schools underscores a broader aversion towards a career that does not offer commensurate pay for work.

"Simply maintaining the quality of the current labor market pool for teachers will require significant raises in real teachers’ pay to compete with other professions for female workers. Otherwise, the quality of education will be compromised," the report said.

The penalties calculated by Allegretto exceed 20% in 36 states, with Colorado coming in worst with a 38.4% penalty; Wyoming fares best with a 9% premium.

Much of the discrepancies, Allegretto wrote in another report with Emma García, a senior researcher at the Learning Policy Institute, and Elaine Weiss, a research associate at EPI, has to do with existing funding mechanisms that rely "primarily on state and local resources, with just a tiny share of total revenues allotted by the federal government ... most analyses of the primary school finance metrics—equity, adequacy, effort, and sufficiency—raise serious questions about whether the existing system is living up to the ideal of providing a sound education equitably to all children at all times."

The 2024 election is likely to have significant ramifications on teacher pay and U.S. education in general. In contrast to the report's recommendation that the federal government support cash-strapped school districts to improve equity, both Project 2025 and the Republican Party platform call for the federal government to "return education to the states" by closing the Department of Education altogether. Furthermore, while the report suggests that public-sector collective bargaining should be expanded so teachers can advocate for improved job quality and better pay, Republican candidates have consistently attacked teachers' unions.

In some Democratic-controlled areas, too, school funding has been put on the back burner. New York City Mayor Eric Adams' initial proposed 2024 budget, for example, would have cut as much as $550 million from the city's schools.

"Too often and in too many places, we are failing to attain one of our highest ideals as a nation: our promise to educate every child without regard to means," Allegretto concluded. "This is a question of political will, with profound implications for our children, their families and communities, and the future of our nation."