Research finds larger pay increases and better benefits key to boosting teacher retention

A nationally representative RAND survey of K-12 teachers found that providing significant pay increases and better benefits could help keep teachers in the classroom.

Low pay is a top reason individuals consider leaving the profession and is a top source of job-related stress for one in three teachers. Only one out of every three K-12 teachers think that their pay is adequate.

Released Nov. 20, the report found that teachers who received larger pay increases were more likely to say that their base pay in the 2023–24 school year was adequate and were less likely to intend to leave the profession even after accounting for base pay.

Elizabeth D. Steiner, the lead author of the report and a policy researcher at RAND, noted that while teachers who received larger pay increases said they were less likely to intend to leave the profession, pay wasn’t the only factor local educational agencies should be paying attention to.

“Offering a broader set of benefits and improving the quality of those benefits could improve teachers’ perceptions of their pay and improve retention,” Steiner said in a statement. “We found teachers who had better perceptions of their benefits also had better perceptions of their pay.”

According to the report, benefits comprise a larger share of teachers’ total compensation package, on average, when compared to other working adults, but working adults in other professions reported better access than teachers to benefits such as paid personal time off, paid parental leave and tuition reimbursement. The largest difference was for paid parental leave, with only one-third of teachers reported having paid parental leave, compared to nearly half of similar working adults.

Additionally, for nearly every employer-provided benefit included in the survey, fewer teachers thought their benefits were adequate compared to similar working adults. Among educators who had paid parental leave, only 46 percent thought it was adequate in comparison with 78 percent of similar working adults who had access to paid parental leave in their profession.

Similar to the findings on pay and retention, teachers who felt their benefits were adequate were less likely to say they intended to leave the teaching profession.

Additional findings on equity

Researchers emphasized findings related to Black teachers because of the worrying changes found in these teachers’ perceptions of their pay and the negative consequences of their attrition on students.

For instance, 65 percent of teachers nationally reported taking on extra work, such as coaching athletics or serving as department chair, and one in four said they were not paid for their extra work. Teachers who were paid for extra work reported small earnings — about 4 percent of base pay. Black teachers, however, were more likely than white teachers to report that they performed extra work for no pay.

Black teachers were also especially likely to say that their base pay is inadequate and that it is a key reason they are considering leaving their job.

Across the country, teachers reported modest pay increases between the 2022–23 and 2023–24 school years — about $2,000 on average and well below their desired increase of $16,000. Black teachers and teachers in states where collective bargaining is prohibited reported receiving the smallest pay increases.

Recommendations

Researchers provided local- and state-level recommendations to address their findings, including:

  • LEAs should develop strategies to ensure equitable distribution of pay for extra work, with clear policies outlining how pay is allocated, and posting extra work opportunities and awarding them according to clear, predetermined criteria.
  • Policymakers should increase teachers’ access to and quality of benefits, particularly paid parental leave, housing and tuition reimbursement. The report suggests state leaders set minimum expectations for teachers’ benefits, just as they set minimum salary requirements.
  • School systems should enhance pay transparency by making detailed, disaggregated information about pay and benefits easily available to teacher jobseekers. LEAs and states should report a variety of information about different aspects of pay by teacher and school characteristics for teachers at different points in their career who are at different points in the salary schedule.