BEGINNING TEACHER SALARIES IMPROVE AS SHORTAGE ABATES
AFT Releases Annual State-By-State Teacher Salary Survey

-- Go to individual state releases

WASHINGTON – Improved beginning teacher salaries and a depressed job market for college graduates in fields outside teaching have helped alleviate the teacher shortage, according to the latest American Federation of Teachers state-by-state teacher salary survey released today. But the good news is tempered by the report’s finding that overall salary growth has been slowed because of state fiscal crises.

For the 2001-02 school year, the average national teacher salary was $44,367, up 2.7 percent over the previous year. The average beginning teacher salary was $30,719, up 3.2 percent over the previous year. The report, which covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, is based on the most recent data available.

“Thanks to better starting salaries, the shrinking teacher shortage should help reduce class sizes. But we can’t afford to ignore and lose experienced teachers, whose salaries are not showing much improvement,” said AFT President Sandra Feldman.

According to the 2001-02 report, California had the highest average salary at $54,348, followed by Michigan ($52,497), Connecticut ($52,376), Rhode Island ($51,619) and New York ($51,020.) Among the states, South Dakota had the lowest average salary at $31,383. Puerto Rico came in even lower, at $25,430.

Alaska posted the highest beginning salary at $36,035, followed by New Jersey ($35,311); New York ($34,577); Connecticut ($34,551) and California ($34,180). North Dakota was the lowest-paying state at $20,988.

The 2002 school year saw an improved balance between supply and demand for new teachers, the report finds, noting that the generally poor job market for new college graduates in other fields drew more people to the teaching profession.

While the shortage of teachers for most subjects in 2002 dropped to 1999 levels, considerable shortages still remain for math, physics, chemistry, earth science, biology and Spanish-language teachers. At the other end of the spectrum, there was an oversupply of physical education teachers. The report finds a balanced supply-and-demand situation for elementary school teachers.

The average salary for teachers also continues to fall well below the average wages of other white-collar occupations. The $44,367 average teacher salary in 2002 (up 2.7 percent from the previous year) compares with $54,503 for mid-level accountants (up 3.5 percent), $74,534 for computer system analysts (up 4.7 percent), and $76,298 for engineers (up 1.8 percent.)

Teacher salaries would still be lower than their white-collar peers even if teachers worked a 12-month year. By factoring in an additional 35 days of work to the $44,367 average salary, teachers would have earned $52,541. Currently, most teachers spend summers taking continuing education and other professional development courses, teaching summer school, or doing other work in seasonal or part-time jobs to earn additional money.

PDF versions of selected tables can be downloaded here:

Table I-1, Average Teacher Salary in 2001-02, State Rankings
Table I-2, Average and Beginning Teacher Salary in 2001-02,
                    Ranked by Average Salary Within Region
Table 1-3, Trends in the Average Teacher Salary, 1999-2000 to 2001-02
Table III-1, Actual Average Beginning Teacher Salaries, 2000-01 and 2001-02

The full report can be downloaded here:

Survey and Analysis of Teacher Salary Trends 2002 (pdf, 1.2MB)

Releases detailing salary data for each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam are available by accessing a U.S. map on the AFT Web site.

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