Pay Teachers Act

Short title— This Act may be cited as the “Pay Teachers Act”.

Table of contents— The table of contents of this Act is as follows:

ensure public elementary and secondary school teachers earn a livable salary and are compensated with a career-based competitive salary that—

increase Federal investments in public schools, and call upon States and local governments to increase investments in public education in order to promote educational equity, including by ensuring that every public school student is taught by a qualified teacher; and

invest in a diverse teacher workforce, by strengthening the educator pipeline and supporting career development and advancement through expanded teacher leadership and professional advancement opportunities.

In the majority of States, public elementary and secondary school teachers do not earn a livable and competitive salary. According to the 2022 report by the Economic Policy Institute—

Many teachers across the country are working multiple jobs and have to rely on public assistance programs just to make ends meet. According to the Southern Regional Education Board, in 36 States, the average teacher salary is low enough that mid-career teachers who are the head of household for a family of 4 qualify for government benefits. According to a University of California, Berkeley study, between 2014 and 2016, 21 percent of elementary and middle school teachers were part of families enrolled in at least one of the following public assistance programs:

One estimate shows that in school year 2020–2021, 17 percent of public school teachers worked multiple jobs during the school year, such as working in restaurants or driving for ride-share platforms.

A similar pattern of inflation-adjusted weekly wages can be seen for school paraprofessionals and other instructional staff. The lack of sufficient and competitive wages is even more pronounced in other school staff roles, with many school staff unable to earn a livable wage. The median pay in the 2019–2020 school year was $13 an hour for school food service workers, $16.36 an hour for bus drivers, $15.34 an hour for school building and cleaning workers, and $19.50 an hour for school administrative and support workers.

According to the National Education Association, the average starting teacher salary in the United States was $42,845 in the 2021–2022 school year. This is an increase of 2.5 percent over the previous school year. Only 1.8 percent of local educational agencies in the United States, who employ 5.9 percent of all teachers, pay a starting salary of $60,000 or more. Nationwide, 39.7 percent of local educational agencies pay their starting teachers less than $40,000, and those local educational agencies employ 17.9 percent of teachers nationwide.

According to a 2022 study from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, the most recent national data shows that nearly 200,000 teaching positions were either vacant or held by underqualified teachers. This study, and others, consistently demonstrate that teacher shortages disproportionately impact schools serving the most students of color and from low-income backgrounds.

Nearly 70 years after Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), required the provision of public education to all people “on equal terms,” children of color, children with disabilities, and children in low-income communities are routinely denied a high-quality education. The Civil Rights Data Collection of the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education shows that schools with high enrollment of students of color are 4 times as likely to employ uncertified teachers compared to schools with low enrollment of students of color. Additional studies show that teachers with less than 3 years of experience are concentrated in schools serving a high percentage of students from low-income backgrounds and students of color.

Research, including a study by the Economic Policy Institute, has found that raising teacher salaries helps attract the best and brightest young people into teaching, encourages teachers to teach in underserved schools, improves teacher retention and morale, and bolsters student academic outcomes. According to the Learning Policy Institute, controlling for other factors, teachers employed by local educational agencies with the highest salary schedules are 31 percent less likely to leave than teachers employed by local educational agencies with lower pay scales.

According to the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of Pennsylvania, teachers who enter the profession through comprehensive and high-quality pathways are 2 to 3 times more likely to remain in the profession than underprepared teachers who enter through less than comprehensive pathways.

Several studies have shown the many benefits of providing opportunities for teacher leadership, which include improving instructional practice, increasing academic and other positive outcomes for students, and increasing teacher retention.

Teachers in the United States are systemically underpaid compared to their similarly educated peers. As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development wrote in 2019, “Depending on the level of education taught, teachers’ salaries are between 62 percent and 68 percent of the average salaries of tertiary-educated workers. These relative earnings are among the lowest across all OECD countries and economies.”.

Raising teacher salaries to at least $60,000 a year and ensuring competitive pay throughout the lifetime of the teaching career is one of the most important steps the United States can take to address the teacher shortage crisis and ensure all students have access to qualified teachers and educational opportunity. Paying teachers as the professionals they are is critical in order to honor the work of educators, restore respect to the teaching profession, and create a high-quality public education system that serves the needs of students, families, and teachers.

Annual adjustment percentage— The term annual adjustment percentage, with respect to appropriations made under this Act for a fiscal year, means a percentage equal to the estimated percentage change in the Consumer Price Index, as determined by the Secretary of Education, for the most recent calendar year ending prior to the beginning of such fiscal year.

Consumer price index— The term Consumer Price Index has the meaning given the term in section 478(f) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087rr(f)).

Secretary— The term Secretary means the Secretary of Education.

Regulations— Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue final regulations related to the implementation of this Act and the amendments made by this Act, including the provisions of subsection (i) of section 6311 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311), as added by this Act.

Special rule— Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary may take such steps as the Secretary determines are reasonably necessary to implement the provisions of this Act and the amendments made by this Act.