Research question
Across the 50 US states and DC, which states report the highest population-weighted average public-school teacher salaries, and how do state rankings reflect cost of living, urban concentration, collective-bargaining frameworks, and per-pupil finance levels?
Methodology
Every number on this page is pulled live from PlainTeacher's current dataset at the moment you load it, ranked from highest to lowest and limited to the top 10. Nothing here is a hardcoded or cached figure: when the underlying NCES Common Core of Data + F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances dataset is refreshed, this page reflects the new numbers automatically.
Values are shown in the units and precision published by the National Center for Education Statistics. Where the source reports figures in thousands or millions, we scale them for readability; where the source reports raw counts, we preserve them with standard thousand-separators. Records with a missing or suppressed value on the ranking metric are excluded rather than shown as artificial zeros.
The National Center for Education Statistics publishes the NCES Common Core of Data + F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances on its own release schedule; when a new release lands, PlainTeacher updates this ranking automatically without any change to this page. If the agency later revises a published value, the revision flows through the same way. See the methodology page for the full source vintage and refresh history.
Top 10 US States by Average Public-School Teacher Salary
Live data, updates automatically when the source dataset is refreshed
- District of Columbia
District of Columbia
$127,962 Est. avg salary
- New York
New York
$116,170 Est. avg salary
- California
California
$114,052 Est. avg salary
- Connecticut
Connecticut
$105,800 Est. avg salary
- Alaska
Alaska
$105,783 Est. avg salary
- Washington
Washington
$102,494 Est. avg salary
- Massachusetts
Massachusetts
$102,280 Est. avg salary
- Rhode Island
Rhode Island
$96,355 Est. avg salary
- Maryland
Maryland
$94,746 Est. avg salary
- Hawaii
Hawaii
$89,313 Est. avg salary
What this shows The highest-paying states cluster in the Northeast and West Coast, reflecting strong collective-bargaining frameworks and higher costs of living in those regions.
The ranked top 10
Every row below reflects PlainTeacher's current dataset (10 rows shown). When the source is refreshed, this table updates automatically.
| # | State | Avg teacher salary | Districts | Total enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | $127,962 | 1 | 48,635 |
| 2 | New York | $116,170 | 673 | 2,331,604 |
| 3 | California | $114,052 | 955 | 5,323,918 |
| 4 | Connecticut | $105,800 | 171 | 469,646 |
| 5 | Alaska | $105,783 | 52 | 129,904 |
| 6 | Washington | $102,494 | 290 | 1,073,873 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | $102,280 | 318 | 859,323 |
| 8 | Rhode Island | $96,355 | 36 | 122,587 |
| 9 | Maryland | $94,746 | 24 | 881,064 |
| 10 | Hawaii | $89,313 | 1 | 173,178 |
Source: National Center for Education Statistics -- NCES Common Core of Data + F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Figures are pulled from PlainTeacher's current dataset and update automatically when the source is refreshed. National Center for Education Statistics -- NCES Common Core of Data + F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Figures are pulled from PlainTeacher's current dataset and update automatically when the source is refreshed.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is District of Columbia, with a value of $127,962 on the Avg teacher salary column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. No number on this page is hardcoded, when the source agency publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record ($127,962) and the 10th-ranked record ($89,313) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full states population, this analysis reflects the following summary statistics. These anchors situate the top-10 ranking against the underlying population: how many records exist in total, what the sum of the ranking column is across all qualifying rows, and what the mean per-record value looks like. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking column are excluded).
Source provenance
The records in this ranking originate from National Center for Education Statistics, specifically the NCES Common Core of Data + F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances. PlainTeacher ingests the source vintage published by the agency and serves it from its current dataset, there is no static export carrying stale numbers, and a newly published source vintage propagates to this page automatically.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records.
What this analysis cannot tell us
Average salary figures reflect instructional-staff salary reported on the F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances, divided by full-time-equivalent (FTE) instructional staff. The 'instructional staff' denominator includes classroom teachers and excludes administrators, support staff, and counselors. State averages are sensitive to district enrollment weighting, a state with one very large district (NYC, LAUSD) will reflect that district's salary scale more heavily than the unweighted state mean. Salary figures are nominal dollars and not adjusted for cost-of-living differences across states; states with high salary rankings (NY, CA, MA, NJ) also typically have high cost-of-living indices. Collective-bargaining law, district-property-tax frameworks, and state-aid formulas all shape the underlying state-level distribution and are not captured in the salary number alone. Comparisons between states with binding statewide salary schedules (e.g., some southern states) and states where districts negotiate independently can be misleading. F-33 fiscal year reflects two years prior to data release; the table reflects the most recent published fiscal year only.
Top 10 States by Median District-Level Teacher Salary
Less sensitive than mean to extreme-high-salary outliers in large districts
- District of Columbia
District of Columbia
$127,962 Median salary
- California
California
$114,477 Median salary
- New York
New York
$109,224 Median salary
- Washington
Washington
$104,029 Median salary
- Alaska
Alaska
$103,494 Median salary
- Connecticut
Connecticut
$103,194 Median salary
- Massachusetts
Massachusetts
$101,208 Median salary
- Rhode Island
Rhode Island
$94,778 Median salary
- Maryland
Maryland
$93,647 Median salary
- Hawaii
Hawaii
$89,313 Median salary
What this shows Median salary rankings largely mirror mean rankings, but states with a few extremely high-paying large districts show a smaller gap between mean and median.
How to read these state averages
A state's position reflects structural forces more than any single policy lever. Collective-bargaining density, statutory minimum salary schedules, pension funding obligations, and licensure reciprocity between neighboring jurisdictions all shape where educators cluster. Regional cost-of-living differences and local property-tax capacity widen the dispersion: affluent suburban tax bases sustain richer step-and-column schedules and longevity stipends, while rural districts with thin enrollment lag despite cheaper living. Because these are enrollment-weighted means of district estimates rather than reported individual contracts, the seniority mix of a state's workforce, its veteran-to-novice ratio, and metropolitan wage premiums also tilt the headline figure.
Sources
- National Center for Education Statistics -- Common Core of Data (CCD) -- https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/
- NCES F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances -- https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/f33agency.asp
- U.S. Department of Education -- National Teacher and Principal Survey -- https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps/