How to Improve Teacher Retention

Only one out of every three K–12 public school teachers think that their pay is adequate. Further, low pay is a top source of job-related stress for many educators and a top reason they consider leaving their job. This is especially true among Black teachers.

A new RAND survey takes a closer look at this issue, revealing key insights into teachers' pay, raises, benefits, and expenses:

• At least two-thirds of teachers reported receiving a pay increase between the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 school years, but the amounts were small—just $2,000 on average.
• Black teachers earned lower salaries than other teachers and reported the smallest pay increases.
• One in four teachers nationally were not paid for the extra work that they performed for their school or school system. Black teachers were more likely to say that they performed such work for no pay.
• Teachers in single-earner households spent larger shares of their household incomes on housing, child care, and student debt payments than other working adults in single-earner households.
• Employer-provided benefits that could help teachers pay for major household expenses were uncommon among teachers.

Although larger raises are key to addressing teacher dissatisfaction, increased pay alone won’t be enough to improve retention. Our findings also highlight the importance of improving the quality of teachers' benefits, providing benefits that can help with major household expenses, and ensuring that pay is equitable. Specific actions that school systems could consider include providing paid parental leave, increasing transparency by publishing more-detailed information about pay, and ensuring that all types of extracurricular work receive compensation.