NEA report shows that Minnesota has the largest teacher pay gap in the region
While rankings hold steady at 15th for teacher pay and 17th for ESP pay, Minnesota falls short in starting salaries and ESP pay
NEA’s annual Educator Pay in America report, released in April, tracks the state of teacher and education support professional pay at the state and national level. The report shows Minnesota’s average teacher salaries for the 2024-25 school year were $76,234 and K-12 ESP salaries were $37,085.
While we rank towards the top compared to other states – 15th and 17th in the nation, respectively – Minnesota has the largest teacher wage gap in the region at 69 cents on the dollar. The teacher wage gap is the difference between teacher salaries and those of professionals in other industries with similar education and experience.
Our teacher wage gap is larger than any of the surrounding states and on par with Alabama (69c), Arizona (67c), Oregon (71c) and Virginia (68c).
Furthermore, both starting teacher salaries in Minnesota and average ESP salaries are still not high enough to provide a living wage. According to the report, a living wage in Minnesota is $68,701, but starting teacher salaries average around $46,000 and K-12 ESP wages average about $37,000.
Educator wages have also not kept up with inflation. Despite on-paper increases, when adjusting for inflation, teachers still earn about 5% less than they did 10 years ago.
The decrease in real wage growth and significant wage gap are part of what is driving the educator shortage, along with out-of-control healthcare and childcare costs, unaffordable housing, and continuing inflation.
In public higher education, Minnesota faculty at four-year institutions earned an average of $108,503 and faculty at two-year institutions earned an average of $84,443. This puts Minnesota at 17th and 15th, respectively. Higher education ESPs made an average of $49,134 annually.
The union difference
The report also showed how strong unions positively impact educator pay. In states with collective bargaining, teachers make 24% more and ESPs make nearly 13% more than in states without any collective bargaining laws.
Education Minnesota’s members have led the charge on increasing pay for both classroom teachers and ESPs. Our legislative agenda calls for a starting wage of $60,000 for teachers with a bachelor’s degree and $80,000 for those with a master’s degree, along with raises across the board commensurate with experience and pay in similar professions.
Additionally, it calls for a $25/hour wage for hourly workers and a minimum hourly salary.
Members have advocated for these pay increases through emails, phone calls and in-person meetings with their elected officials during a lobby day. If you have not yet reached out to your elected officials about increasing pay, you can do so at edmn.me/educatorpay.
To read the full Educator Pay in America report, please visit neatoday.org/educatorpay.
How Minnesota compares nationally:
$76,234 MINNESOTA AVERAGE SALARY
$74,495 NATIONAL AVERAGE SALARY
$37,085 MINNESOTA ESP AVERAGE SALARY
$36,360 NATIONAL ESP AVERAGE SALARY
