Teaching salaries have not kept pace with wages in professions where workers have similar education levels, according to a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report.

From 1996 to 2021, inflation-adjusted average weekly wages for teachers increased by $29, from $1,319 to $1,348 (in 2021 dollars), while those for other college graduates grew $445, from $1,564 to $2,009.

The difference, referred to as a wage penalty, was 23.5% in 2021, the highest the EPI has found since it began tracking the data in the late 1970s. In 1996, the gap was 6.1%. By deducting a 9.3% benefits advantage for teachers from the 23.5%, the EPI calculated a 14.2% total compensation penalty.

The wage penalties vary widely, with Colorado the highest at 36% and Rhode Island the lowest at 3.4%. The wage penalties were 19.6% in Florida, 17.6% in California, 13.2% in New York and 4.5% in New Jersey.

“In no state does the relative weekly wage of teachers equal or surpass that of their nonteaching college graduate counterparts,” the report said.

Female teachers had an overall wage premium of 1.3% compared to female college graduates in other professions in 1995 and a 17.1% wage penalty in 2021. For male teachers, the wage gap with other male college graduates was 14.4% in 1995 and 35.2% in 2021, which “goes a long way toward explaining why the gender makeup of the profession has not changed much over the past few decades,” the report said.

Spectrum News, Aug. 17