Teachers’ Wages ‘Essentially Flat’ for 50 Years, Analysis Says

Teachers’ salaries have changed little for more than five decades, a recent report states.

Nonprofit research and data analysis firm Network Contagion Research Institute stated in a May 18 report that teacher wages have remained “essentially flat” for more than 50 years, according to an analysis of figures adjusted for inflation.

The report, citing information from the National Center for Education Statistics, states that the average teacher salary for the 2021–2022 academic year was $66,397.

Adjusted for inflation, that is 7.8 percent less “in real purchasing power than teachers earned a decade prior and is scarcely distinguishable from the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $64,401 that teachers earned in the 1969–1970 school year.”

The report also summarizes public records of finances and political contributions of the nation’s largest public school teachers unions, mainly the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

Charts in the report indicate that NEA spending on representing its local unions and members decreased last year, to $45.4 million from $46.5 million.

During the same period, NEA spending on political actions, lobbying, and “contributions, gifts, and grants” that are used to support political causes increased to $220.5 million last year from $184.8 million in 2016.

Meanwhile, the AFT has spent most of its money on unit representation or collective bargaining.

Charts in the report indicate that $99.3 million of the $145.4 million in total money spent last year was for those purposes, compared with $77.6 million of the $111.3 million total in 2016.

“In other words, over more than half a century during which the NEA and AFT have collectively spent billions of dollars, teachers’ real wages have barely moved,” the report states.

According to the report, the unions, with a combined 4.7 million members, “operate as large-scale political and funding institutions with limited transparency and unattenuated accountability to their members.”

This raises concerns about the preservation of academic freedom and educational neutrality, the report states.

An analysis of political action committee records indicates that both unions have overwhelmingly contributed to Democrats, not Republicans, the report states.

NEA membership has fallen by almost 400,000 since 2009, while annual dues have risen every consecutive filing year.

The report also cites teachers union connections to police-free school initiatives, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and pro-Palestinian organizations.

The NEA and AFT did not respond to requests for comment.