New Jersey teachers had the eighth-highest average salary in the country during the 2023-24 school year, according to published reports by the National Education Association.
The average teacher in the Garden State made $82,877 last year, as reported by the 2023-24 NEA Rankings and Estimates report. This is a 2.2% increase from the previous year’s average salary of $81,102. Additionally, this figure is more than $10,000 higher than the nationwide average of $72,030.
New Jersey’s average teacher starting salary for the 2023-24 school year was $57,603, the fourth highest in the nation, according to the NEA Teacher Salary Benchmark Report. This figure is more than $11,000 higher than the national average starting teacher salary of $46,526.
According to the benchmark report, starting teacher salaries across the United States “picked up a little momentum” last year, increasing by an average of 4.4%. This jump marks the most significant increase over the 15 years that NEA has been tracking this data.
California came in on top of both lists with the highest average teacher salary of $101,084 and the highest average starting teacher salary of $58,409.
Salary increases vs inflation amid an ongoing teacher shortage
While educators have begun to see “long-overdue pay increases,” partly thanks to union advocacy both at the bargaining table and with state legislatures, the average teacher pay has failed to keep up with inflation, NEA said. When adjusted for inflation, according to the report, teachers make on average 5% less than they did 10 years ago and 9% less than the peak in 2009-10.
Last year, the national average teacher salary saw an increase of 3.8%, just below the 4% increase reported the year before and still less than 2009-10. While the data shows that salaries have improved, NEA says that they are “still likely too low to make any lasting positive impact on teacher recruitment and retention.”
These reports come amid an ongoing teacher shortage in New Jersey and across the country. This crisis, fueled by retention challenges and a drop in the number of students seeking teaching degrees was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, Gov. Phil Murphy developed a state task force to address this issue. The task force found that the number of teachers leaving Garden State schools far exceeded the number of new certified teacher graduates between the 2014-15 school year and the 2017-18 school year.
To combat this issue, the state has implemented a variety of solutions such as a $1 million initiative called Teach.Inspire.New Jersey, which launched in December. A New Jersey law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, aims to address the shortage by eliminating a type of testing required for new teachers.
The average starting teacher salary in the United States in 2023-24 was $46,526, a 4.4% increase from the year before and the largest increase in 15 years, NEA reported. While this improvement was diminished by a 3% inflation rate, NEA says that the progress detailed in the report is still encouraging.
For example, the NEA’s data shows that the average starting salary for teachers now exceeds $50,000 in 15 states. This represents a jump from 23% to 30% of school districts that meet this benchmark. Additionally, according to the NEA, more than 800 school districts around the country paid teachers a starting salary of at least $60,000 during the 2023-24 school year marking a 66% increase from the year prior.
“These sorts of improvements are critical in the effort to attract and keep teachers,” reads the report. “Even after entering the profession, too many educators find they cannot make ends meet, forced to take on second or even third jobs, leading to burnout and an early exit after only a few years.”
States with the highest average teacher salary in 2023-24
The 10 states (and Washington, D.C.) with the highest average teacher salary during the 2023-24 school year, according to the NEA, were:
District of Columbia: $86,663
States with the lowest average teacher salary
The 10 states with the lowest average teacher salary during the 2023-24 school year, according to the NEA, were:
To view the NEA’s full report and state-by-state rankings, visit https://www.nea.org/node/27906/all-news-articles/state-teacher-pay.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ teacher salaries and pay: How much do they make compared to average