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In Several States, Teachers Get Their Biggest Raise in Decades

Budget surpluses have enabled states to pass bills giving teachers a bigger paycheck, but not everyone is certain that will help improve schooling.

By Giulia Heyward
April 14, 2022

After rocky teacher shortages that saw classrooms led by police officers, the National Guard and even a governor, a small but growing number of states are approving significant pay raises for teachers.

In some states, especially those that rank low on the pay scale, the salary boost is the largest statewide salary increase for educators in decades.

On March 1, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico signed a bill that her office said would increase base salary levels by an average of 20 percent. Later that month, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced the state would funnel $800 million into the state’s budget to raise the starting salary for teachers to $47,000. And shortly afterward, Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi signed off on the largest pay raise for the state’s teachers in decades: an average increase of $5,100 that will raise salaries by more than 10 percent.

Georgia lawmakers have approved a spending plan that would give its teachers, and other education workers, a $2,000 bonus. And last week, Alabama lawmakers agreed to give its teachers pay raises ranging from 4 percent to nearly 21 percent, depending on experience.

It is the first time teachers in Alabama have seen a pay raise of this scale since 1983, according to the Alabama Education Association.

“The No. 1 sentiment has been: It’s about time, and it’s very much appreciated,” Amy Marlowe, the association’s executive director, said. “They also were in disbelief, I think, for about a week. We heard from a large number of teachers who were just contacting us making sure that they heard it correctly, and it wasn’t some kind of joke.”
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Hope-Hill Elementary School in Atlanta. Georgia’s legislature approved a plan that would give teachers a $2,000 bonus.
Hope-Hill Elementary School in Atlanta. Georgia’s legislature approved a plan that would give teachers a $2,000 bonus.Credit...Dustin Chambers for The New York Times
Hope-Hill Elementary School in Atlanta. Georgia’s legislature approved a plan that would give teachers a $2,000 bonus.

The pay raises are good news for teachers, and strategic moves for politicians. They may encourage teachers to stay put as school labor shortages persist in some school districts. The raises could assuage teachers over labor concerns, with teachers having gone on strike in cities such as Sacramento and Minneapolis. And just around the corner are midterm elections, where education is bound to be a major issue.

“There are various things a state can do to attract more people to the profession, and keep people in who are already there,” Thomas Bailey, an economist and the president of Teachers College at Columbia University, said. “Those changes are long overdue.”

But, Dr. Bailey said, the pay bumps are not large enough to significantly change the standard of living for any teacher.

“It may help, but I don’t know how much this will help,” he said. “I don’t think this will solve the problem.”

When adjusted for inflation, the national average salary for teachers has only somewhat increased over the past decade, according to the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union.

Other economists believe that these raises should be aimed toward certain hard-to-fill teaching positions.

For Suzanne Smith, a math and social studies teacher in Grenada, Miss., the $5,100 salary jump has not sunk in yet — it is the largest one she has seen in the more than three decades she has spent in this field. The average salary for a Mississippi schoolteacher is $46,843, the lowest in the nation, according to the National Education Association.

“We’re never going to think we’re paid enough because we always think we deserve more than we get,” she said.

Throughout Ms. Smith’s entire teaching tenure, she said, she and other teachers in her district have worked several jobs to supplement their income. She has worked at a day care center, hotels and a sporting goods store.
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“Very few teachers in Mississippi can exist on just the salary itself,” she added.

For Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, another labor union, raising teacher salaries feels vindicating for organizations that have been asking for this for years.

“Let me just say this: It’s never too late,” she said, adding, “People don’t go into teaching to become rich, but they should be able to raise their kids on a decent salary.”
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For Ms. Smith, a second job has been a necessity. She has worked at a day care center, hotels and a sporting goods store.
For Ms. Smith, a second job has been a necessity. She has worked at a day care center, hotels and a sporting goods store.Credit...Houston Cofield for The New York Times
For Ms. Smith, a second job has been a necessity. She has worked at a day care center, hotels and a sporting goods store.

Jennifer Trujillo, an elementary school teacher in Bernalillo, N.M., and a lead negotiator for her local union, estimates that more than a quarter of her fellow teachers in the school district work a second job. Some are bartenders, work on golf courses or moonlight as private tutors.

She spoke to one teacher this week whose second job meant a combined 12-hour shift.

When her colleagues learned that teachers in the state would receive, on average, a 20 percent salary increase, they were “very, very happy,” Ms. Trujillo said. “They have said it’s about time, finally. Some people are saying that they can now quit their second job.”

But economists warn that the bonuses and pay raises are a short-term solution to structural issues that states have not addressed.

The pay raises come at the same time that numerous states are reporting huge budget surpluses from excess pandemic aid relief, and tax revenue.

In Florida, state economists predicted an extra $4 billion from tax dollars alone. In Idaho, where Gov. Brad Little has endorsed $1,000 bonuses and up to 10 percent pay increases for teachers, economists expected to see an extra $1.6 billion at the end of the fiscal year, in June.

Thomas S. Dee, an economist and professor at Stanford University, said states should have used this money to target high-performing teachers, or those in subjects, such as special education and the sciences, that are often hard to fill.

“I think it’s a good idea to pay teachers more in light of inflation, and in light of what they’ve been through in the last couple of years,” he said. “But I really see a missed opportunity in terms of elevating the teaching profession and improving teacher effectiveness.”

Dr. Dee points to the Washington, D.C., school district, which introduced a program that targeted pay raises to high-performing teachers and dismissed those who were not meeting standards, and were therefore already more likely to leave. In a recent study of this program, Dr. Dee said the program helped students with their performance.

This is counter to what most of these participating states are doing now, Dr. Dee said, where every teacher, regardless of their work, is getting a pay raise.

“It’s not targeting where turnover, and shortages, are most prevalent, and have their most deleterious effects,” he said.

Ms. Smith, the Mississippi teacher, is not sure what she plans to do with her $5,100 salary boost, but she has a few ideas. Her car is sputtering, so she may use the money to buy a new one. And there is always the option of spoiling her grandchildren.

“I think it means more now, not just because it’s financial but because of the timing of it on the tail end of the pandemic,” she said. “This is that little extra boost. That’s our pat on the back to go on, and keep pushing forward. Because the past couple years have been really difficult.”

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