Chart Shows Inflation is Outpacing Teacher Salaries (1990-2022)

Schools in the US are facing a lot of problems and one of the biggest is how they treat their teachers. If you have ever been on the r/Teachers subreddit then you know exactly what I am talking about. The subreddit is becoming more and more filled with complaints about teaching. The complaints range from disinterested kids and unruly parents to administrators that seem to care about state-sponsored standardized test scores more than anything else.  You would think that with all the teaching shortages and the upheaval created by the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers would be seeing an increase in salaries, but this graph shows that new teachers today are actually earning 11% less than their peers from 30 years ago.

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With inflation in mind a starting teachers salary today should be around $46,762 but today they are only making around $41,780 on average. Looking at the graph you can see that since 1990 the salary with inflation and the actual starting salary have been pretty close to one another until you get to 2022 where you see such a large difference. If things don’t change soon, students will continue to suffer. Students are already considered to be behind due to disruptions from the pandemic. Good teachers are needed now more than ever, so let’s pay them what they deserve.