Why Are Teachers Underpaid? 3 Wishes for What Would Actually Fix It

By Jon Konen, Last Updated: August 26, 2026

gold genie lamp beside a yellow pencil on a gold background

Teachers are underpaid because their pay hasn't kept pace with what other college graduates earn: the Economic Policy Institute puts the gap at 25.2% as of 2025. This piece imagines a different fix: paying teachers on the same scale as senior federal officials. The comparison isn't a policy proposal. It's a way to see the gap in real numbers.

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Wish 1: Pay Teachers Like Senior Government Officials

teacher depicted as a political candidate

A lot of new teachers finish their degree with $30,000 to $40,000 in student debt, and they'll be paying it down for a good chunk of their career. The starting math is rough: the national median annual wage for elementary school teachers was $63,970 as of May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. State medians range from $48,200 in Oklahoma up to $102,350 in Washington, so where you teach changes the equation a lot.

The Economic Policy Institute tracks something more specific than the raw salary number: how teacher pay compares to what other college graduates earn in the same market, adjusted for education and experience. In 2025, that gap stood at 25.2%. Teachers earned about 75 cents on the dollar compared to similarly educated peers in other fields. That's actually a slight improvement over 2024's record 26.9% penalty, but it's still four times as wide as it was in 1996.

So here's the wish: what if teachers were paid on the same scale as senior federal officials? Below are the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's 2026 Executive Schedule pay rates - real figures for real federal roles, not a teacher estimate. The salary figures come from OPM, not BLS; the two agencies track different things, and it's worth keeping that straight.

Government Pay Level	2026 Rate (OPM)	Example Roles
Level I (Executive Schedule)	$253,100	Cabinet secretaries, Commissioner of Social Security
Level II	$228,000	Deputy secretaries, NASA administrators
Level III	$209,600	Under secretaries, agency ethics directors
Level IV	$197,200	Assistant secretaries, agency inspectors general
Level V	$184,900	Directors of federal science and research agencies

Line that up against the national median salary for elementary teachers of $63,970. Even the lowest Executive Schedule rate, Level V, runs nearly three times that. Swap salaries for a year, and I'd bet the pay conversation in this country would move a lot faster than it has.

Wish 2: Buildings Built As We Mean It

students working with a robotic arm

My second wish is for school buildings that get the same investment as a university research wing or a corporate campus. When Montana State University's Engineering and Physical Sciences Building opened in 1997, the roughly $22 million project had been described as Montana's most expensive building project. Nobody blinked at that price tag for a university building. A K-12 school rarely gets that treatment.

Great Falls Public Schools opened Giant Springs Elementary School in 2018, a $15 million project funded by a $98.9 million bond voters approved in 2016. That's real, meaningful investment in a K-12 building - and it's still a fraction of what a single university science building can cost. Why does the most expensive building in a state get built for a university and not an elementary school? We have the architects and the engineers. What we don't have is the capital.

Give schools the same design ambition and resources that go into the buildings adults work in, and you're investing directly in the resource that matters most: the kids inside them.

Wish 3: Fill Schools With Specialists, Not Just Fewer Teachers

laboratory equipment

My last wish is for more people in the building supporting students, not fewer. School staffing debates tend to circle the same argument: larger class sizes and leaner staff save money in the short term. What that solves in the long term isn't clear.

My wish runs the other way. Put medical staff on site to handle basic student needs. Bring in engineers to work alongside students on science and robotics projects. Have computer scientists teach coding and robotics in the hallways, not just in an elective once a semester. Let chefs teach kids how to actually cook and eat well. Teachers already do the instructional heavy lifting. Specialists working alongside them every day would make student learning the actual priority rather than the stated one.

In practice, this wish comes down to something simpler: give districts the budget to hire more people for classrooms that are already stretched thin.

Would the Genie Even Listen?

audience seated in rows waiting for a speaker

If I only got one wish, it would be for this country to actually treat education like the priority it says it is. Fund it as it matters, staff it like it matters, and build for it as it matters. That's the whole ask.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are teachers underpaid compared to other professions?

The Economic Policy Institute measures a "teacher pay penalty," the gap between what teachers earn and what similarly educated, similarly experienced professionals earn in other fields. That gap was 25.2% in 2025, down slightly from a record 26.9% in 2024, but still far wider than the 6.1% gap recorded in 1996.

What is the median teacher salary in the U.S.?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national median annual wage for elementary school teachers was $63,970 as of May 2025. Middle school teachers earned a median of $64,370, and high school teachers earned $72,040.

Which states pay teachers the least and the most?

Among elementary school teachers, Oklahoma has the lowest state median annual wage at $48,200, and Washington has the highest at $102,350, according to May 2025 BLS data. The cost of living varies widely across those states too, so the raw dollar gap tells only part of the story.

Is teacher pay actually improving?

Slightly, by one measure. The 2025 teacher pay penalty of 25.2% is an improvement over 2024's record 26.9%. But it remains more than four times the gap recorded in 1996, so "improving" is relative to a recent low, not a return to historical norms.

The pay gap is real and measured - The Economic Policy Institute puts the 2025 teacher pay penalty at 25.2%, meaning teachers earn about 75 cents on the dollar compared to similarly educated peers in other fields.
Location changes the math substantially - State median elementary teacher salaries range from $48,200 in Oklahoma to $102,350 in Washington, per May 2025 BLS data.
Facilities investment lags, too - School buildings rarely receive the design ambition or budget that universities and corporate campuses do, even though they serve just as many people.
Staffing support, not just teacher headcount, is part of the fix - Specialists working alongside teachers, not fewer adults per classroom, is the direction that actually helps.

2025 US Bureau of Labor Statistics salary figures for Kindergarten and Elementary School Teachers, Middle School Teachers, and High School Teachers. Teacher pay penalty figures (2024-2025) are from the Economic Policy Institute and Center for Economic and Policy Research. 2026 Federal Executive Schedule pay levels are from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, a separate source from the BLS and EPI figures above. Figures reflect state and national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed August 2026.

Pay is one piece of a bigger decision about where and how to teach. The sponsored programs listed here include options for career-changers and current teachers looking to add a credential, with formats that fit around a full-time teaching schedule.

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