Minnesota Educator Salary Study

The Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity has conducted a study of demographics and salaries among K-12 licensed public educators in Minnesota. As in many other states, Minnesota K-12 schools report significant teacher shortages, despite nearly 38% of those licensed to teach in the state working outside of a licensure position. The Institute’s analysis explores factors likely contributing to the teacher shortage, and concludes with recommendations for improving it.

The study identifies significant trends across the state. First, early-career teachers typically earn low salaries, usually far below cost-of-living for a typical family. Overall, teachers appear underpaid compared to workers with similar academic credentials. Charter schools employ less-credentialed and less-experienced teachers, and offer particularly low salaries. These labor market realities appear to contribute to the strains faced by the Minnesota K-12 education system.

Key findings include:

Educator pay is low compared to professions with a similar mix of educational credentials. Compared to a dozen peer professions with roughly similar educational thresholds, Minnesota teachers earned between $15,000 and $90,000 less than most, including nurses, occupational therapists, and urban planners. The average teacher with a bachelor’s degree earned $50,900, while the average Minnesota worker with a bachelor’s degree earned $68,1000. The average teacher with a master’s degrees earned $71,750, while the average Minnesota worker with a master’s degree earned $86,750.

Data suggests that educators are often paid less than typical incomes in their area and often less than the local cost of living. Even at the highest level of licensure, only half of Minnesota teachers earn more than 70% of median family income in their district. Over one-third of teacher salaries were lower than the basic-needs cost of living for a typical family, even before the rapid inflation of 2021 and 2022.

On average, Minnesota educators must work for years or decades before their compensation becomes competitive. Overall, on average, Minnesota educators must work for 9 years before their compensation equals cost of living for an average family in their county. And on average, an educator must work 36 years before their compensation reaches median family income for their district.

Educator demographics remain heavily white and female, across school types. Teaching remains a profession dominated by women and white employees. Across Minnesota, 94% of educators are white and 70% are female. After accounting for geographic location, traditional and charter schools have demographically similar teaching forces.

Traditional school teachers have much more robust credentials and experience than charter school teachers. Charter and traditional school teaching forces do differ very substantially along non-demographic dimensions, with charter educators having many fewer years of experience and lower educational attainment. Charter educators are also much more likely to hold lower-tier licenses.

There are major, partly unexplained gaps between traditional and charter school educator salaries. There are very significant gaps between charter and traditional school salaries. Within the metro area, where the vast majority of Minnesota charters are located, the average gap between charter school and traditional school educator salaries is approximately $19,250. After controlling for educator certifications and experience, a large gap of $8,850 remains.

The differing employment profile of charter schools appears to substantially lower the cost of operating those schools. Statewide, charter school operating costs would increase more than $90 million annually if charters employed workers with similar credentials and experience as traditional schools.

Recent shifts in inflation and the rising cost of living only exacerbate these trends and policies to increase teacher salaries are an important step towards stabilizing the education system. The report recommends:

• Addressing the teacher shortage through improved teacher compensation.
• Instituting a statewide teacher pay schedule.
• Instituting a minimum salary for starting teachers.
• Investigating gender pay disparities.
• Reevaluating the charter school employment and compensation model.
• Reducing racially and economically concentrated workplaces.
• Improving data collection to include non-licensed employees.