In a 2016 study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the organization notes an “erosion” in teacher salaries that’s been happening for decades. In the 1960s, the report says, teachers earned more than similarly educated workers, but, by the 1980s, this trend had reversed. The result is what’s known as the “teacher penalty,” defined by experts at the University of California, Berkeley, as “the percent by which public school teachers are paid less than comparable workers.”
Between 2010 and 2018, the EPI found this “teacher penalty” to grow from 13.5 percent to 21.4, meaning teachers now make more than 20 percent less than similarly educated professionals. Fueling this problem is the fact that teachers’ salaries, when adjusted for inflation, have actually decreased over time, from $1,216 per week in 1996 to $1,195 in 2018. During this same time frame, weekly wages have actually risen $323 for other college graduates, from $1,454 in 1996 to $1,777 in 2018.