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Teachers are underpaid, overworked, and often unappreciated. With Teacher Appreciation Week approaching, the National Education Association’s (NEA) release of its annual reports on educator pay provide a comprehensive look into just how much teachers are making. While the pay gap between teachers and similarly educated professionals is stark, unionization and the power of collective bargaining are highlighted as a consistent vehicle for ensuring that educators are paid what they deserve.
In 2023-2024, the average public school teacher was earning $72,030, with the highest-paying state, California, at $101,084 and the lowest, Missouri, at $55,132. Between 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, the average change in salaries was about 3.5 percent. However, after factoring in inflation, teachers actually have seen a 5 percent decrease in real earnings, or constant dollars, compared to ten years ago.
For every dollar that similarly educated professionals earn, teachers received 73.1 cents in 2024, creating a teacher pay gap of 27 percent. Nationally, teachers entering the workforce in 2024-2025 received a salary of $48,112, and the average top teacher salary was $87,331.
However, advocating for higher pay and better working conditions through collective bargaining has been tremendously successful. The NEA’s research shows that unionized K-12 teachers in states with collective-bargaining rights earned 24 percent more ($80,176) than their counterparts without them ($64,500). Unions are able to stand strong against the changing political and economic tides in the U.S. Protecting the rights of those who work in education can be, and will continue to be, possible through sustained collective action.
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