Teacher Supplement
Assistance Allotment
Published 2024 | BEST NC
In North Carolina, teacher salaries typically include a state-funded base salary and a local salary supplement, with some teachers eligible for other performance and credential-based increases or bonuses.
Local Salary Supplements
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Significant inequity exists in value of local salary supplements across North Carolina’s traditional public school districts, driven both by the property wealth of the district and local funding effort, typically determined by county commissioners. In 2023–24, average local salary supplements ranged from $10,650 in Chapel Hill–Carrboro City Schools to $0 in Graham County Schools, Caswell County Schools, and Weldon City Schools. Local supplements are roughly correlated with differences in cost of living in these counties. |
In 2023–24, |
The Supplemental Funds for Teacher Compensation Allotment
Recognizing that differences in local salary supplements may be a driver of the inequitable distribution of effective teachers, the North Carolina General Assembly established the Teacher Supplement Assistance Allotment (“the Allotment”) in 2021. The state budget provided $100 million in the first year, with $70 million added in 2022 and $30 million added in 2023, bringing current funding for the Allotment to $200 million annually.
The Allotment is structured such that districts in less wealthy counties receive a greater amount of funding per teacher. This is designed to increase the capacity of those districts to offer competitive local salary supplements. In the first year of implementation, 109 of 115 traditional public-school districts (representing 69% of the state’s teachers) received teacher supplement funding ranging from $436 to $4,250 per teacher.
Effect on Local Salary Supplements
In 2021–22, local school districts spent approximately $515M on locally funded salary supplements for teachers and the Allotment contributed an additional $100M. State funding helped reduce variation in districts’ teacher salary supplements but did not fully mitigate the advantage held by districts at the top of the local salary supplement rankings. In 2021–22, average combined salary supplements – including local funds and funds from the Allotment – ranged from $1,925 in Rutherford County Schools to approximately $9,072 in New Hanover County Schools.
Ninety-five of the 109 school districts receiving Allotment funds gave the same amount of supplemental pay to each teacher. Just three districts – Bertie County Schools, Gaston County Schools, and Yadkin County Schools – implemented a pay strategy with a supplement range of more than $300 and an appreciable difference between minimum, average, and maximum salary supplements. These data indicate that funds from the Allotment have not been deployed strategically to, for example, fill critical vacancies, retain effective teachers, or recruit effective teachers to low-performing schools.
NC DPI Statistical Profile, Table 20; North Carolina General Assembly: Fiscal Research Division; NC DPI Report: Supplemental Funds for Teacher Compensation; NC DPI (Data Request)
About This Series
This post is part of BEST NC’s 2024 Facts & Figures: Education in North Carolina Spotlight On: series. View the full report at NCEdFacts.org or visit BESTNC.org.