School Salaries
BLS OEWS May 2025 · national and state pay for teachers, assistants, substitutes, school staff and leaders
BLS publishes wages by occupation, not job title, and has no private school or charter school occupation code, so every figure on these pages names the BLS occupation behind it.
The headline figure on each page is the national median in elementary and secondary schools, which counts public district, charter and private schools together.
Next to it is the national figure for privately owned schools alone, a separate BLS industry series.
State figures cover every employer in the state, public and private schools together.
Teaching assistants and substitute teachers each have a BLS occupation of their own.
Classroom teachers, special education teachers, school counselors, librarians and administrative assistants are counted in broader occupations, shown by grade level or alongside the related occupation where BLS splits them.
Heads of school, instructional coaches and school nurses have no BLS occupation.
Their pages show the closest available one as a labelled benchmark, without a percentile table.
The head of school figure is a stand-in: education administrators, K-12, which counts principals and assistant principals too.
BLS has no occupation for Montessori teachers, teaching fellows, admissions directors, athletic directors or school founders, and no official source publishes Montessori teacher pay, so this site shows no BLS benchmark for them.
Every figure is payroll pay from the BLS wage survey, before overtime and most bonuses, and no page here quotes a single school's pay scale.
Salary by state
Private School Teacher salary by state: elementary school teachers (except special education), all schools, public and private, in 51 of the 50 states + DC (Broader BLS occupation: SOC 25-2021 Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education) →Special Education Teacher salary by state: special education teachers (kindergarten and elementary school), all schools, public and private, in 51 of the 50 states + DC (Broader BLS occupation: SOC 25-2052 Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten and Elementary School) →Teaching Assistant salary by state: teaching assistants (except postsecondary), all schools, public and private, in 51 of the 50 states + DC (BLS occupation: SOC 25-9045 Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary) →Substitute Teacher salary by state: short-term substitute teachers, all schools, public and private, in 50 of the 50 states + DC (BLS occupation: SOC 25-3031 Substitute Teachers, Short-Term) →School salaries by role
| Role | Median, all K-12 schools | Median, privately owned schools | What the number is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private School Teacher | $63,980 | $58,140 | Broader BLS occupation (SOC 25-2021) |
| Special Education Teacher | $65,080 | $61,030 | Broader BLS occupation (SOC 25-2052) |
| Teaching Assistant | $36,990 | $37,090 | BLS occupation (SOC 25-9045) |
| Substitute Teacher | $42,890 | $36,210 | BLS occupation (SOC 25-3031) |
| Head of School | $105,840 | $98,020 | Closest available occupation, a stand-in (SOC 11-9032) |
| Instructional Coach | $81,050 | $68,290 | Closest available occupation (SOC 25-9031) |
| School Counselor | $76,760 | $62,190 | Broader BLS occupation (SOC 21-1012) |
| School Nurse | $69,340 | $74,090 | Closest available occupation (SOC 29-1141) |
| School Librarian | $74,130 | $59,460 | Broader BLS occupation (SOC 25-4022) |
| School Administrative Assistant | $47,050 | $46,020 | Broader BLS occupation (SOC 43-6014) |
Medians are annual, BLS OEWS May 2025, for wage-and-salary workers only. "All K-12 schools" is NAICS 611100, public and private together; "privately owned schools" is BLS industry 611105, national. The last column says whether a median is the title's own BLS occupation, a broader group or the closest available one.