Numbers and shares of public school teachers who currently fall below the FLSA standard salary threshold and would therefore be affected if the teacher exemption were removed from the FLSA, by selected characteristics

 

Total number of teachers Share of all teachers Number of teachers below the standard threshold Share of group that is below the standard threshold Number of teachers in the group that are below the threshold, as a share of all teachers below threshold
All 4,608,117 100.0% 951,641 20.7% 100.0%
Gender
Women 3,300,608 71.6% 701,630 21.3% 73.7%
Men 1,307,509 28.4% 250,010 19.1% 26.3%
Race/ethnicity
White 3,507,944 76.1% 675,471 19.3% 71.0%
Black 422,760 9.2% 100,650 23.8% 10.6%
Hispanic 418,981 9.1% 97,976 23.4% 10.3%
Asian 223,568 4.9% 68,904 30.8% 7.2%
Other 34,863 0.8% 8,640 24.8% 0.9%
Age
Under 25 239,286 5.2% 145,306 60.7% 15.3%
25–54 3,379,306 73.3% 553,775 16.4% 58.2%
55–64 730,190 15.8% 142,620 19.5% 15.0%
Over 65 259,335 5.6% 109,939 42.4% 11.6%
Education level
Less than four-year college degree 317,669 6.9% 204,411 64.3% 21.5%
Four-year college degree 1,757,406 38.1% 420,224 23.9% 44.2%
Advanced degree 2,533,042 55.0% 327,006 12.9% 34.4%
Occupation
Elementary and middle school teachers 2,591,600 56.2% 473,244 18.3% 49.7%
Postsecondary teachers 692,489 15.0% 229,716 33.2% 24.1%
Preschool and kindergarten teachers 161,096 3.5% 38,244 23.7% 4.0%
Secondary school teachers 783,042 17.0% 94,748 12.1% 10.0%
Special education teachers 305,353 6.6% 60,541 19.8% 6.4%
Other teachers and instructors 74,537 1.6% 55,148 74.0% 5.8%
Work status
Full-time 3,974,190 86.2% 454,214 11.4% 47.7%
Part-time 633,927 13.8% 497,427 78.5% 52.3%
Pay periodicity
Hourly 466,542 10.1% 296,006 63.4% 31.1%
Salaried 4,141,575 89.9% 655,635 14.8% 68.9%

Notes: Based on teachers’ weekly earnings as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis of the Current Population Survey, 2017–2019. The current standard threshold is $684 per week. Pay periodicity refers to the time frame for the pay the teacher reported their salary in their response to the CPS questionnaire.

Source: Authors’ analysis of EPI Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.22 (2021), https://microdata.epi.org.

View the underlying data on epi.org.