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States with the largest teacher pay gap

Nexstar Media Wire

In recent months, teachers in multiple states, including West Virginia, Kentucky, Arizona, and Colorado, have gone on strike to protest low wages and insufficient resources in public schools. With many states cutting school funding, teachers are experiencing economic pressure inside and outside of the classroom and are voicing their need for change.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average annual salary of teachers in U.S. public elementary and secondary schools is $58,950. Although teachers’ salaries have risen nominally over the past 50 years, when analyzed in “constant dollars” based on the consumer price index, salaries have actually been decreasing since 2009. For comparison, the average annual earnings for workers over the age of 18 who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher in the U.S. is $77,526, resulting in a national teacher pay gap of -24%.

With this in mind, Credit Sesame wanted to see how the pay gap varied from state to state. Its researchers calculated the Teacher pay gap as the percent difference between the Average annual salary for teachers in each state (taken from the National Education Association, Estimates of School Statistics, 2016-17) and the Average annual earnings for all college graduates (calculated for each state using the U.S. Census Bureau, 2016 American Community Survey 1-year Public Use Microdata Samples). Then each state and the District of Columbia was ranked from the highest teacher pay gap to the lowest.

Based on the analysis, the teacher pay gap is in the teachers’ favor in only two states: Vermont and Alaska. The states with the highest teacher salaries are in the populous, heavily urban states of New York, California, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, and Connecticut, while the states with the lowest teacher salaries are in the mostly rural states of Colorado, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Dakota. States with lowest teacher salaries also tended to have higher teacher pay gaps.

Here are the states with the largest teacher pay gap:


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25. Idaho


Photo Credit: William Scott / Alamy Stock Photo

24. New Mexico


Photo Credit: Steven Frame / Alamy Stock Photo

23. Kentucky


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

22. West Virginia


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21. New Jersey


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20. Connecticut


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

19. Arkansas


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

18. Louisiana


Photo Credit: Jeff Zehnder / Alamy Stock Photo

17. Kansas


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

16. South Carolina


Photo Credit: Image Source / Alamy Stock Photo

15. Missouri


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14. Georgia


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

13. Alabama


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

12. Mississippi


Photo Credit: Tom Grundy / Alamy Stock Photo

11. South Dakota


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

10. North Carolina


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

9. Tennessee


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8. Utah


Photo Credit: Dave Newman / Alamy Stock Photo

7. Oklahoma


Photo Credit: Richard Theis / Alamy Stock Photo

6. Washington


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

5. Florida


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

4. Texas


Photo Credit: Andrew Zarivny / Alamy Stock Photo

3. Arizona


Photo Credit: Joe Ferrer / Alamy Stock Photo

2. Colorado


Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Alamy Stock Photo

1. Virginia

Methodology & full results

Teacher salary and salary change statistics are from the National Education Association, Estimates of School Statistics, 2016-17. Both are in constant 2016-2017 dollars. Average annual earnings for all college graduates was computed for each state using the U.S. Census Bureau, 2016 American Community Survey 1-year Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS). Only adults over age 18 with a bachelor’s degree or higher were included in the analysis. The Teacher pay gap was calculated as the percent difference between the Average annual salary for teachers and the Average annual earnings for all college graduates.