FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

While teacher pay in Utah is comparable to surrounding states, Utah isn’t losing a lot of teachers to other states—instead, they’re leaving the profession altogether to find a career that pays more or deciding it’s not worth it to have a second income in the family when the pay is too low. A 2019 report by the Utah Foundation shows that, on average, Utah teachers earn 27 percent less than full-time, college-educated employees in other professions.

It’s difficult to make meaningful comparisons between hours demanded by different professions. Even if teachers truly only worked 9 months a year, a 9(+/-) month career with 9(+/-) month pay—and little flexibility in when they get time off—isn’t attracting enough teachers. One way to increase the average pay is by giving teachers the option to make more pay by working more days, while still allowing people who really want summers off to enter and stay in the profession. These additional days can also increase teachers’ effectiveness by providing time for preparation and professional development, as well as summer school for students who need it.

Currently, about half of Utah teachers — those who started teaching before July 2011 — have much richer retirement benefits than teachers who began teaching after July 2011. Adjusting salary increases in consideration of these differing benefits, for example by giving a smaller increase to those with richer benefits and a bigger increase to those with less valuable benefits, can correct the discrepancy moving forward to ensure total compensation is equal. This also reduces the costs of salary increases.

The recommended compensation increases will make teaching more competitive with other bachelor-degree professions. While there are some bachelor-degree professions with salaries lower than the recommended levels, those professions tend not to have staffing shortages and therefore do not need to pay more. At the simplest level, there are just not enough people going into the teaching profession, so the pay needs to be more competitive than it is.

The number of people who want to be teachers will increase, which means districts and schools can be more selective in who they hire or retain. More of Utah’s best and brightest will aspire to be teachers. Competitive salaries will also change the social optics of teaching, and teaching will become a more respected profession. All these factors will improve teacher quality, and we know that nothing within a school has greater impact on student outcomes than the teacher. The higher cultural esteem, and the atmosphere and national attention around higher teacher salaries, will also lead young people to feel like they are part of something significant and engage more seriously in their education.