Rankings & Estimates Report Shows Wisconsin Educators’ Salaries Lagging
According to the latest data, Wisconsin educators’ salaries lag behind educators in the rest of the nation and other comparable professions. Wisconsin’s salaries are also losing ground to Illinois and Minnesota, neighboring states some educators move to in pursuit of higher salaries.
The National Education Association’s newest annual “Rankings and Estimates” report found that pay for starting teachers in Wisconsin fell from 38th in the U.S. last year to 43rd in the United States. The state’s average yearly teacher salary is $6,268 below the national average, and more than $2,000 below the minimum living wage for a wage earner with one dependent.
Average salaries for teachers in Illinois are more than $10,000 a year higher than in Wisconsin, with starting pay about $2,800 lower. In Minnesota, the average salary is almost $7,000 per year higher and starting salaries more than $2,700 higher.
WEAC President Peggy Wirtz-Olsen said, “Starting pay has now fallen five more spots to 43rd in the nation, and great, young educators are looking elsewhere to start their careers. Meanwhile, experienced educators only need to cross the border to Minnesota or Illinois to increase their salaries by thousands of dollars per year. There is no question that this impacts our students.”
The gains that WEAC locals have made through the Fair Pay Now program, coordinated bargaining and organizing have not made up for the losses suffered in the last 13 years because of state budget cuts and changes in Wisconsin’s bargaining law for public employees. With the 2025-27 biennial state budget currently in the hands of the members of the Legislative Joint Finance Committee, Wisconsin’s Legislature is sitting on a $4 billion budget surplus.
WEAC has resources to help members stay on top of the state budget process and get involved. All WEAC members are urged to email your legislators, the members of the Joint Finance Committee, and Governor Evers and tell them what your students need from this budget. You can find more information and resources in WEAC.org’s State Budget Toolkit, and the comprehensive Budget Overview.
Nationally, educators still suffer from too-low wages and a lack of professional respect, according to four new NEA reports examining educator pay and school funding from pre-K through college. Despite gains in some states and some sectors, the reports today show salaries continue to lag behind inflation, and too-low pay exacerbates the national teacher shortage, making it difficult for school districts to attract and retain quality educators while also worsening educator morale.
“In some states, educators are seeing long-overdue pay increases, thanks to union-led advocacy, but overall, educator pay is still not keeping up with inflation. This hard-won progress is now under threat from the Trump administration’s careless, callous, and reckless actions, and students will pay the price,” said NEA President Becky Pringle. “Their plans to gut public education will rip funding from public schools and roll back these very same gains to help provide competitive and professional pay to educators. These resources are desperately needed to ensure every student has access to every opportunity needed to succeed. What is happening at the federal level is not just an attack on educators—it’s an attack on every student and every family in every community of this country.”
“Rankings and Estimates,” a report NEA has produced since the 1960s, is widely cited as an authoritative source on average teacher salaries and per-student expenditures.
