Teacher salary in the US
What teachers are paid in the US, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with how your own pay compares. Figures from the BLS OEWS release dated May 2025.
Median annual pay
$63,970
Middle half earn
$57,710 to $81,450
People in this job, US
1,388,390
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Elementary School Teachers, national, annual pay, May 2025
- 10th percentile
- $47,960
- 25th percentile
- $57,710
- Median
- $63,970
- 75th percentile
- $81,450
- 90th percentile
- $104,340
Elementary, except special education. Middle and high school are separate codes with similar medians.
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 25-2021. Percentiles across everyone employed in the occupation, not experience levels.
At a glance
What teachers earn across the US
- About 1,388,390 people are employed in this occupation across the US.
- Pay varies widely within the job: the 90th percentile earns 2.2 times the 10th.
Worked from BLS OEWS, May 2025. Not adjusted for the cost of living.
Skills
What employers look for in a teacher
The skills our teacher resume example leads with, written for US employers.
- Differentiated instruction
- Lesson planning
- Curriculum alignment
- Formative assessment
- Classroom management
- IEP implementation
- Data-driven instruction
- Small group intervention
- Standards-based grading
- Parent communication
See the full teacher resume example, with bullets and keywords.
Negotiating
Using these numbers
Below $57,710 puts you in the bottom quarter for teachers in the US. That is worth raising, with evidence of what you deliver.
The median, $63,970, is the middle of the market, not a ceiling. An offer at or near it is a fair starting point to negotiate from.
Asking for $81,450 or more puts you in the top quarter, so it needs a reason an employer will accept: a wider scope, a competing offer, or a skill that is hard to hire for.
Percentiles are not experience levels. They describe everyone doing the job, so a senior hire can sit at the median of a market full of senior people.
About the numbers
What these figures are
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys employers for its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and these figures are from the release dated May 2025. They cover wage and salary workers in Elementary School Teachers, a category that is often broader than a single job title. Self-employed people are not included.
They are base pay: bonuses, equity and overtime are not included, and they are not adjusted for the cost of living.
Questions
Questions about teacher pay in the US
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