10 States That Pay Teachers the Highest (and Lowest) Salaries

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...Each year the National Education Association (NEA) — the largest teacher’s union in the country — releases a comprehensive report about how states use their money for education. A part of this report includes information about teacher salaries broken down by state. The most recent report, released by the union in May 2016, includes salary estimates for the 2015-16 school year. The average salary for that year is estimated to be $58,064 for all public school teachers...

Here are the top 10 states for teacher salaries, based on the 2016 estimates....

States with the lowest teacher salaries

According to the NEA’s report, all of the lowest-paying states in terms of teacher salaries allot far less than the national average — more than $10,000 less each year, in fact. The differences between the bottom 10 states in terms of salary don’t have quite the spread that the top 10 do: The salary differences fall within $6,000, with a percentage difference of about 14%.

Many of these states are marked with more rural communities and likely a lower cost of living, but not all of the payment gaps are explained by those factors. When the EPI looked at the teacher pay gaps and salary ratios, half of the states with the lowest teacher salaries are also at the bottom of the list in terms of earnings compared to other college graduates living in those states. In other words, teachers simply don’t command as high of a salary in these states:...