Open data / same-year comparison
Teacher salary purchasing power by state
This separate 51-jurisdiction ranking rescales PlainTeacher’s FY2023 estimated state salaries by the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s FY2023 all-items Regional Price Parity. It answers a relative state price-level question, not what an individual teacher takes home.
What this comparison changes
The nominal salary is multiplied by 100 and divided by the state’s RPP (United States = 100). A lower RPP raises the comparable purchasing-power figure; it does not model income tax, benefits, housing choices, or within-state metro differences.
Highest adjusted estimate
District of Columbia
$112,892
Download the source-defined release
Both files carry the nominal estimate, RPP, formula result, count of reliable districts, enrollment, and the two stated source vintages.
49 states and D.C., ranked by adjusted estimate
| Rank | State | Nominal estimate | RPP | Adjusted estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | $124,986 | 110.7 | $112,892 |
| 2 | California | $117,066 | 112.2 | $104,341 |
| 3 | Delaware | $93,778 | 98.8 | $94,956 |
| 4 | Ohio | $87,266 | 91.9 | $94,954 |
| 5 | New York | $102,018 | 107.8 | $94,599 |
| 6 | Washington | $98,713 | 108.4 | $91,089 |
| 7 | North Dakota | $79,613 | 88.2 | $90,291 |
| 8 | Rhode Island | $91,048 | 102.1 | $89,206 |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | $86,413 | 97.4 | $88,720 |
| 10 | Utah | $82,802 | 95.7 | $86,508 |
| 11 | Wyoming | $76,650 | 91.6 | $83,724 |
| 12 | New Hampshire | $88,144 | 105.4 | $83,633 |
| 13 | Maryland | $86,869 | 104.6 | $83,047 |
| 14 | Connecticut | $86,049 | 104.2 | $82,580 |
| 15 | Nevada | $79,964 | 97.9 | $81,712 |
| 16 | Massachusetts | $87,838 | 107.7 | $81,577 |
| 17 | Vermont | $78,123 | 97.1 | $80,422 |
| 18 | Wisconsin | $74,014 | 93.2 | $79,397 |
| 19 | Minnesota | $77,264 | 98.3 | $78,599 |
| 20 | New Mexico | $71,496 | 91.0 | $78,584 |
| 21 | Alabama | $68,705 | 89.1 | $77,113 |
| 22 | Louisiana | $68,292 | 88.7 | $76,992 |
| 23 | Iowa | $67,736 | 88.8 | $76,306 |
| 24 | New Jersey | $82,755 | 108.9 | $75,963 |
| 25 | Nebraska | $67,976 | 90.3 | $75,288 |
| 26 | Colorado | $76,563 | 101.9 | $75,168 |
| 27 | Idaho | $68,476 | 92.2 | $74,240 |
| 28 | Montana | $67,270 | 91.0 | $73,912 |
| 29 | Michigan | $68,460 | 94.3 | $72,601 |
| 30 | South Carolina | $66,712 | 93.5 | $71,368 |
| 31 | Virginia | $72,246 | 101.3 | $71,297 |
| 32 | Oregon | $74,436 | 104.8 | $71,019 |
| 33 | Georgia | $67,559 | 96.5 | $70,014 |
| 34 | Hawaii | $75,494 | 109.7 | $68,817 |
| 35 | Kentucky | $60,639 | 89.9 | $67,459 |
| 36 | Kansas | $60,338 | 89.9 | $67,110 |
| 37 | Maine | $65,614 | 98.0 | $66,978 |
| 38 | Tennessee | $60,752 | 92.1 | $65,968 |
| 39 | Missouri | $59,384 | 91.1 | $65,183 |
| 40 | Arizona | $65,503 | 100.7 | $65,021 |
| 41 | West Virginia | $55,293 | 89.6 | $61,688 |
| 42 | Indiana | $56,399 | 92.1 | $61,239 |
| 43 | South Dakota | $53,003 | 88.1 | $60,128 |
| 44 | Mississippi | $52,005 | 86.8 | $59,919 |
| 45 | Texas | $57,662 | 97.1 | $59,360 |
| 46 | Arkansas | $50,859 | 86.8 | $58,587 |
| 47 | Florida | $59,077 | 103.6 | $57,004 |
| 48 | Oklahoma | $49,153 | 88.7 | $55,427 |
| 49 | North Carolina | $49,852 | 94.4 | $52,810 |
Method and limits
For each state, PlainTeacher first calculates the average estimated teacher salary from reliable FY2023 NCES district records. It then applies salary × 100 ÷ RPP, using BEA’s FY2023 all-items state RPP. The national RPP is 100.
This is a relative geographic price-level adjustment. It is not an individual teacher’s contract, after-tax income, benefits package, housing budget, or a metro, county, or district purchasing-power comparison. State averages can hide large within-state differences.
Use the nominal teacher-salary dataset when you need the underlying estimate without a price adjustment.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities by State (SARPP), all items · 2023 Combined with the FY2023 NCES-derived state salary estimate; values are relative to the U.S. price level of 100.
This portal is rendered directly from its public source data, no number is typed in by an editor. The ranking applies the stated BEA all-items price-level index to PlainTeacher's reliable FY2023 state salary estimate. It does not make a district-level or take-home-pay claim. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page.
| Publisher | PlainTeacher |
| Sources | Public official public datasets |