Teacher Pay in North Carolina
Teachers are the most significant in-school factor for student success; which means the most important thing we can do to improve our education system is to recruit, prepare, support, and retain great talent for our schools.
However, for years, tens of thousands of early and mid-career teachers were earning less than a living wage for a family of four. And despite North Carolina’s investment of +$1 billion in teacher pay over the last decade, many teachers are still pointing to pay as one of the main drivers of turnover. BEST NC’s research is helping policymakers, educators, and other stakeholders make sense of North Carolina’s teacher pay landscape, and our recommendations are designed to not only improve educators lives, but student results as well.
A Modern Workforce Deserves
Modern Compensation Strategies
North Carolina is at the forefront of a national movement to redefine how teachers are paid with programs like Advanced Teaching Roles and strategies like front-loaded pay. But there’s only so much these strategic investments can help when the salary structure that they’re layered on is so outdated. While compensation strategies for other highly skilled professions have evolved to meet the needs of a modern workforce, teacher compensation has failed to keep pace. Watch this video to learn more about the history of teacher pay in North Carolina and the strategies BEST NC recommends in our policy brief to better align compensation strategies to meet the demands of a modern, highly skilled workforce.
I’m grateful to BEST NC, especially in conversations regarding teacher pay. We all know that there is a lot of work to be done for teacher pay in North Carolina – and BEST NC equips our policymakers with the information they need to make data-driven decisions.
Leah Carper
2022 Burroughs Wellcome North Carolina Teacher of the Year
Director of Stakeholder Engagement, Guilford County Schools
Teacher Pay in North Carolina: A Smart Investment in Student Achievement (2025)
BEST NC’s groundbreaking report has been updated! The 2025 Edition of Teacher Pay in North Carolina: A Smart Investment in Student Achievement examines how existing teacher pay structures fail to address decades-long shifts in our national workforce and are inadequate for meeting the personal and professional needs of teachers. This updated report provides an expanded set of strategic recommendations to significantly increase and improve the pay structure for teachers, additional data, and updated assets.
Included in this report:
- The history of teacher pay in North Carolina;
- The key challenges fueled by North Carolina’s current compensation model;
- An overview of research-backed compensation strategies;
- Recommendations for strengthening teacher pay in North Carolina;
- Links to one-of-a-kind interactive data sets and heat maps;
- And more!
What Is a "Living Wage" and What Does It Have to Do with Teacher Pay?
In BEST NC’s reporting, you will see the phrase “living wage” when talking about early- and mid-career teachers. For example: as many as half of North Carolina teachers when you’re looking at just their state base pay, earn less than the “living wage” needed to support a family a family of four – that’s more than 51,000 educators.
North Carolina Base Teacher Pay Schedule vs. Typical Living Wage Trajectory (2023-24)
The graph above illustrates the current base state salary schedule for teachers based on years of experience (green) – what is known as a step-and-lane schedule – compared to the amount each parent would need to earn to support a family of four, assuming there are two working adults in a household (blue). This threshold is what we are referring to as the “living wage.”
Conclusion: In the first few years of their careers, when teachers are not only making the most gains in their professional capacities but are also starting and growing their families, their base state pay is much less than the living wage required to live comfortably.
BEST NC's Recommendations to Improve North Carolina's Outdated Teacher Pay Model
BEST NC’s policy brief ultimately recommends a substantial, multi-year investment in teacher pay, that will:
- Significantly increase starting pay to attract top talent,
- Replace the outdated step-and-lane schedule with a front-loaded pay structure that provides all fully licensed teachers with a living wage,
- Establish competitive, differentiated pay for high-demand degrees like STEM and Special Education and broaden incentives for teaching in hard-to-staff schools; and
- Implement Advanced Teaching Roles statewide to offer career advancement opportunities for many teachers and embedded professional support for their colleagues.
RESOURCE LIBRARY
Related Resources & Programs
Below is a curated selection of our catalogue of policy briefs, reports, videos, blogs, interactive data tools, and research around this initiative:
Policy Brief
Advanced Teaching Roles in North Carolina: Meaningful Career Opportunities for Teaching Professionals (2022)