State Teacher Policy Database Homepage › National Overview

Teacher Compensation

Compensation is one of the most powerful policy levers states and school districts can use to attract a qualified, effective, and diverse teacher workforce.

Data updated: September 2022

Go to a policy priority Elementary Reading Strategic Staffing Teacher Compensation Teacher Diversity Teacher Evaluation
Select a state Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Why focus on Teacher Compensation?

Competitive compensation is a key strategy states can leverage to attract skilled, effective educators. Research shows that policies like strategic pay for working in hard-to-staff schools and subjects, higher pay for highly effective teachers, and rewards for career changers with prior work experience can incentivize behavior. These strategies successfully bring effective teachers into schools1 or subject areas2 that most need them, and increase teacher retention.3

How well is each state implementing policies to support Teacher Compensation?

NCTQ conducted a comprehensive scan of teacher compensation strategies in 2022. From that analysis, we found that approximately 75% of states use monetary incentives to attract teachers to hard-to-staff subjects and schools. However, only 20% of states require teacher performance to be considered when determining compensation. Additionally, only a handful of states offer extra compensation for prior experience in other industries. These findings highlight opportunities for states to further strengthen their compensation policies.

Explore the key policy levers below to learn more about how each state is implementing policies to strengthen Teacher Compensation. (NCTQ does not assign rankings to states for this policy area.)

Key policy levers to improve Teacher Compensation

Differentiated Pay for Hard-to-Staff Schools and Subjects
Performance Pay
Pay for Prior Work Experience

Key Resources

State of the States 2022: Teacher Compensation Strategies

Explore NCTQ’s detailed state analysis of teacher compensation strategies.

Explore resource

Smart Money 2.0

Uncover teachers' salaries across 90 districts nationwide, learn about strategies to increase pay, and discover missed opportunities for raising compensation and improving outcomes.

Explore resource

More districts are paying teaches strategically to meet critical needs. Is yours?

Learn more about how some districts are implementing differentiated compensation to fill critical gaps and improve student learning.

Explore resource

What are the long term effects of teacher performance pay on student outcomes?

Read more about the research behind teacher performance pay.

Explore resource
References
  1. Morgan, A. J., Nguyen, M., Hanushek, E. A., Ost, B., & Rivkin, S. G. (2023). Attracting and retaining highly effective educators in hard-to-staff schools (No. w31051). National Bureau of Economic Research.
  2. Theobald, R., Xu, Z., Gilmour, A., Lachlan-Hache, L., Bettini, E., & Jones, N. (2023). The Impact of a $10,000 Bonus on Special Education Teacher Shortages in Hawai‘i. CALDER Working Paper 290-0823.
  3. Bueno, C., & Sass, T. R. (2018). The effects of differential pay on teacher recruitment and retention. Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Research Paper Series (18-07).