Teacher Wages and Purchasing Power in the Fifth District

Teacher pay is notorious for being low considering teachers' vital role educating young people and preparing them for lifelong learning. At a national level, the difference between teachers' average wages and those of other college graduates has been growing over the past 25 years. But aggregate statistics obscure local variation in teacher wages. As seen in a recent District Digest article on resolving the gap in teacher supply, teachers' starting salaries vary throughout the Fifth District.

This post explores the extent of the teacher wage gap, which is the difference between teachers' wages and wages for non-teachers with similar education and experience. It also explores the variation in teachers' weekly wages across urban and rural communities throughout the Fifth District, accounting for differences in local cost of living.

How Do Teacher Earnings Compare?

Throughout this post, "teachers" refers to elementary, middle, and high school teachers, including special education teachers. When assessing the extent of the teacher wage gap, we compare teachers to people employed in two groups of occupations:

1. "Non-teacher occupations." This group is limited to non-teachers with at least a bachelor's degree.
2. "Comparison group occupations." This is a subset of non-teacher occupations that were identified as similar to teachers in terms of the share of workers with at least a bachelor's degree and workers' median age (as a proxy for work experience). These characteristics contribute to how much a worker is expected to earn.

To measure earnings, this analysis uses weekly wages to account for differences in the number of weeks worked during the year. Taking this approach controls for differences in earnings among teachers, non-teachers, and the comparison group that may be attributable to the fact that most teachers do not work year-round.

Overall, teachers' earnings tend to be lower than both non-teacher and comparison group earnings throughout the Fifth District. (See chart.) The teacher wage gap is clear. The median teacher's weekly wage is 31 percent less than non-teachers with at least a B.A., and 29 percent less than comparison occupations. The teacher wage gap is largest in Virginia and smallest in West Virginia and South Carolina. (See table.)

Another way to express the teacher wage gap is to take the ratio of teacher weekly wages to non-teacher weekly wages. A ratio of less than 100 percent means that there is a teacher wage gap. The extent of the teacher wage gap varies across the Fifth District. In most places, teachers earn less than 90 percent of what the median non-teacher makes. (See map.)

Relative Rural Teacher Wage Gap

The wage gap for rural teachers is smaller than the wage gap for urban teachers. Within rural parts of the Fifth District, teachers earn 22 percent less than non-teachers and 13 percent less than those in comparison occupations. In urban areas, teachers earn 32 percent less than non-teachers and 29 percent less than those in comparison occupations. (See chart.)

It's worth noting in the chart above that while teachers in urban areas do earn more than their rural counterparts, the urban-rural difference in teacher wages is considerably smaller than for non-teacher and comparison occupations. The median urban teacher earns about 12 percent more than the median rural teacher. By contrast, urban non-teachers earn 24 percent more than rural non-teachers, and urban respondents in comparison group occupations earn 28 percent more than their rural counterparts.

Accounting for Variation in Cost of Living

Median teacher weekly wages vary across the Fifth District. Teacher wages tend to be highest in urban parts of Maryland and the D.C. metro area, rural areas throughout Maryland, and in the rural areas surrounding Winchester and Charlottesville in Virginia. (See map).

While teacher wages tend to be lower in rural areas, so does the cost of living. For that reason, looking at wage levels alone does not provide a full picture of how financially well-off teachers are across geographies.

Using data on how local prices compare to national average prices, we can adjust median wages to account for differences in local cost of living. After making this adjustment, the difference between urban and rural teacher wages shrinks from 12 percent to around 3 percent. This means that urban teachers still have greater purchasing power than rural teachers but at a smaller scale than the unadjusted wage numbers would suggest.

The previous map showed that teacher wages in the Fifth District are greatest throughout Northern Virginia and Maryland. However, the map below shows that, after adjusting for local cost of living, teachers' wages in these urban areas are more comparable to their rural counterparts. In fact, in North Carolina, the two areas with the greatest cost-of-living-adjusted teacher wages are both rural. Comparing the two maps on teachers' wages shows that the median teacher weekly wage has greater purchasing power than the unadjusted wages would suggest in several rural areas throughout West Virginia, North Carolina, and western Virginia. (See map.)

Conclusion

The teacher wage gap exists throughout the Fifth District, but its extent varies geographically. While teachers tend to earn less than non-teachers and those in comparison occupations in both urban and rural areas, the teacher wage gap is smaller in rural areas. Urban teachers earn more than rural teachers but to a lesser degree once wages are adjusted for differences in cost of living. In many rural places, cost-of-living-adjusted teacher wages indicate greater purchasing power for teachers than unadjusted wages suggest, particularly in West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.