Not just salary: New listing ranks best and worst states for teachers
Students listen to a teacher in a classroom. (MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images)
Teaching is among the lowest paying jobs which requires a bachelor’s degree in the United States.
The pay gap between the weekly wage of teachers and other college graduates working in other professions grew to a record 26.4% in 2022, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That’s a 6.1% increase from 1996.
"In fact, teachers earn 5% less than they did 10 years ago, when you adjust for inflation, despite ever-increasing standards," according to WalletHub.
But there are some states that provide better salary growth and other protections for teachers than others.
WalletHub compared 50 states and the District of Columbia and ranked them from the best to worst states for teachers.
WalletHub based its ranking on 24 key factors of "teacher friendliness" which included teacher turnover rates, salary, average commute and student-teacher ratio among others.
New York is No. 1
New York took the top spot as one of the best states for teachers to work in, with an average salary of $82,571, and the state provides the strongest tenure protections, according to WalletHub.
New York also has the highest amount of funding per public school student in the country and has the lowest turnover rates.
Washington state came in second and Virginia took the third spot.
The best and worst states for teachers ranked
More teachers are quitting amid bleak outlook
According to a 2024 national poll of teachers, conducted by Educators for Excellence, teachers’ outlook on the profession "remains at an all-time low, following a precipitous drop during the pandemic."
Today, only 16% of teachers said they’d recommend the profession to others, according to the poll.
A huge driver of their dissatisfaction is due to growing responsibilities, but compensation or support hasn't matched that growth.
Teacher shortages are more pronounced among high-needed subject areas such as math, science, special education and bilingual education. Part of the reason those are so hard to fill is because there typically is no pay differential between those more challenging roles and other positions throughout the school.