Teacher salary
What a teacher actually earns, from 1,278 live job postings blended with the official US OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) wage anchor. Pick a market for its median and range, then read the seniority split, the trend, and the country comparison below. Updated 2026-07-23.
Switch the market above to see teacher pay in the 3 countries our sources cover, each with its own cost of living. The trend, seniority, and state detail below are United States data, where the official record runs deepest.
What the number means
Teacher pay is the clearest case on the board of a job that is secure and stuck. The blended US median is about 64,000 dollars with an OEWS median of 62,340, and unemployment is a low 2.2 percent, so the jobs are there. What is not there is growth: pay rose 4 percent since 2019, the slowest of any occupation we track, and well behind inflation over the same stretch. That gap between steady employment and stagnant pay is why teachers search for exits in the numbers you can measure. The most common one, instructional design, pays a starting band above the teacher median and rises past six figures, using the curriculum and facilitation skills a teacher already has. The exit is not a rejection of the work; it is a response to a pay curve that flattened while the cost of living did not. If you are weighing it, the skills transfer; the tooling and vocabulary are the gap.
Open teacher roles
Live openings tagged to this occupation, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.
- Work from home - Teacher English Online !!YiYiEnglish · United StatesRemoteJul 23
- Freelance Corporate English TeacherCapsLock · LatviaRemoteJul 22
- Copy of Singing & Music TeacherNachhilfeunterricht · GermanyRemoteJul 22
- Online English Teacher with YiYiYiYiEnglish · United StatesRemoteJul 22
- TeacherBureau of Prisons/Federal Prison System · Springfield, Missouri$64k–$97kJul 20
- Mixed Secondary Teacher (0310 English/0320 Social Studies)Department of War Education Activity · Ankara, Turkey$58k–$115kJul 20
By country
- United States$58,048 – $75,509 · median $65,333
- United Kingdom$55,899 – $71,654 · median $63,132
- Canada$29,301 – $64,028 · median $50,228
Top-paying US states
OEWS median by state, highest first.
- Washingtonmedian $99,110
- Californiamedian $98,190
- New Yorkmedian $82,480
- New Jerseymedian $77,150
- Alaskamedian $76,290
- Marylandmedian $74,720
Is your offer fair?
Run a specific number through FairElephant, which weighs it against this data, your location, and remote market rates.
Move into or out of teacher
- teacher → instructional designermeasured route
Related salaries
- UX Designer salary$129,764 median
- Project Manager salary$116,325 median
- Accountant salary$72,138 median
Quick answers
How much do teachers make?
The blended US median is about 64,000 dollars, with the official BLS OEWS median for elementary and middle-school teachers at 62,340. The range is a tight 57,000 to 76,000.
Why is teacher pay so low?
It is not only low but stagnant: teacher pay rose about 4 percent since 2019, the slowest on our board and behind inflation, even though unemployment is a secure 2.2 percent.
What can teachers do for higher pay?
The most common move is instructional design, which starts above the teacher median and rises past six figures on the same curriculum and facilitation skills. See the teacher-to-instructional-designer route.
Method: bands are the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of live US postings with stated pay, shrunk toward the official OEWS anchor by sample size (the “blended” figure). Trend is the OEWS annual median for SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code 25-2021. Unemployment is the 2025 BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) CPS (Current Population Survey) annual-average rate for “Elementary and middle school teachers.” Live corpus 1,278 observations, 2026-07-23. Definitions in the glossary.