The teacher compensation penalty was 10.2% in 2019: Trends in the teacher compensation penalty and its components, 1979–2019
| W-2 wage share of compensation | Public school teachers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year(s) | Professionals | Public school teachers | Wage penalty | Benefits advantage | Compensation penalty |
| 1979 | n.a. | n.a. | -7.1% | n.a. | n.a. |
| 1993 | n.a. | n.a. | -5.1% | 2.4% | -2.7% |
| 2004 | 81.3% | 79.3% | -12.8% | 2.2% | -10.7% |
| 2007 | 80.7% | 77.2% | -11.7% | 4.0% | -7.7% |
| 2010 | 79.8% | 75.6% | -11.9% | 4.9% | -7.1% |
| 2017 | 78.1% | 71.4% | -20.9% | 7.4% | -13.5% |
| 2018 | 78.5% | 70.9% | -22.0% | 8.3% | -13.7% |
| 2019 | 78.6% | 70.7% | -19.2% | 9.0% | -10.2% |
| Percentage-point change | |||||
| 1979–1993 | n.a. | n.a. | 2.0 | n.a. | n.a. |
| 1993–2007 | n.a. | n.a. | -6.6 | 1.6 | -5.0 |
| 1994–2007 | -0.6 | -2.1 | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. |
| 2007–2019 | -2.1 | -6.5 | -7.5 | 5.0 | -2.5 |
| 2010–2019 | -1.2 | -4.9 | -7.2 | 4.1 | -3.2 |
| 2018–2019 | 0.1 | -0.2 | 2.8 | 0.7 | 3.4 |
| 1993–2019 | n.a. | n.a. | -14.1 | 6.6 | -7.5 |
Notes: Teachers are elementary, middle, and secondary public school teachers (compensation data do not include kindergarten teachers or special education teachers, who are included in the wage data). The benefits advantage is the degree to which teachers’ higher benefits relative to professionals offset their wage penalty. See Allegretto and Mishel 2019, especially Appendix A, for more details.
Note: Teachers are elementary, middle, and secondary public school teachers (compensation data do not include kindergarten teachers or special education teachers, who are included in the wage data). The regression-adjusted wage penalty is how much less teachers earn in weekly wages than their college-educated nonteaching peers. The benefits advantage is the degree to which teachers’ higher benefits relative to professionals offset their wage penalty. See Allegretto and Mishel 2019, especially Appendix A, for more details. Numbers may not sum to totals due to rounding.
Source: Authors’ analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group data and Bureau of Labor Statistics Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data.
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