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With more working hours and lower average base pay, teachers report worse well-being than other working adults. RAND research shows that this has been a consistent pattern since 2021.
According to the latest RAND State of the American Teacher survey, an annual study of K–12 public school teachers across the United States, teachers report working an average of 53 hours per week. That's compared with 44 hours for similar working adults. And only 36 percent of teachers say that their base pay is adequate compared with 51 percent of their counterparts. The responses also reveal teachers' top sources of stress in 2024: managing student behavior, low salary, and administrative work outside of teaching.
Further, Black teachers report working significantly more hours per week, on average, than their peers, while female teachers report significantly higher rates of frequent job-related stress and burnout than male teachers. This raises questions about the sustainability of the profession for Black and female educators in particular.
This is the fourth consecutive year RAND has collected data that raise concerns about high stress and low pay in the teacher workforce. Our insights may help federal, state, and local education leaders and policymakers better understand the challenges facing America's teachers.
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