The US cities where teachers are paid the least: analysis

(NEXSTAR) — Many teachers across the U.S. continue to face low wages, but in some metropolitan areas, an educator’s salary can stretch further than in others.

The projected average national salary for public school teachers for the 2022-23 school year is $68,469, according to the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers’ union in the country. When adjusted for inflation, the average has declined by 6.4 percent over the past decade, the NEA said in its annual Rankings and Estimates report.

In McAllen, Texas, educators have the highest purchasing power compared with teachers in other cities, based on data analyzed by the personal finance firm MoneyGeek.

The average annual salary in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area is $73,153 — but after accounting for taxes and the cost of living, the adjusted take-home pay comes to $68,271. Again, that’s still higher than elsewhere in the country, according to MoneyGeek’s report, which ranked the metro areas that offer the best real income for educators.

MoneyGeek’s overall ranking, featured below, included the combined average salaries for the metro areas with the highest adjusted teacher salaries.

Metros with the highest adjusted teacher salaries

Rank	Metropolitan Area	Take-Home Pay*	Average Annual Salary
1	McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX	$68,271	$73,153
2	Auburn-Opelika, AL	$66,080	$85,617
3	El Paso, TX	$65,260	$74,846
4	Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX	$65,198	$79,310
5	San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX	$64,031	$76,777
6	Austin-Round Rock, TX	$61,973	$80,805
7	Knoxville, TN	$60,559	$67,801
8	St. Louis, MO-IL	$59,819	$74,316
9	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	$58,987	$77,591
10	Kalamazoo-Portage, MI	$58,577	$66,425
11	Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT	$57,976	$83,906
12	Cleveland-Elyria, OH	$57,964	$73,307
13	New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA	$57,781	$101,068
14	Reno, NV	$57,226	$77,310
15	Brownsville-Harlingen, TX	$57,036	$58,305

Even though New York City has the highest average salary listed in the top 15, at $101,068, the take-home pay dwindles to $57,781 when considering income tax and living expenses.

For K-12 educators looking to get the most out of their salaries, the Kennewick-Richland metro area in Washington might be ideal. K-12 teachers have the highest take-home pay there at an average of $60,822. Meanwhile, postsecondary teachers have the highest purchasing power in Las Cruces, N.M., with an average take-home pay of $84,429.

Among the 178 metropolitan areas that MoneyGeek analyzed, Hawaii’s capital fared the worst for teachers pay. The annual income for educators in Honolulu averages $51,778, but the take-home pay comes to just $22,677.

Other cities where teachers earn less than $35,000 after taxes and living costs include Hilton Head, S.C., and Prescott, Ariz.

An article published in April on the NEA’s website noted that low wages haven’t been on par with inflation and could worsen school staffing shortages as teachers look for better pay.

“Educators who dedicate their lives to students shouldn’t be struggling to support their own families,” NEA President Becky Pringle said in the article. “A career in education must not be a lifetime sentence of financial worry. Who will choose to teach under those circumstances?”

Metros with the lowest adjusted teacher salaries

Rank	Metropolitan Area	Take-Home Pay*	Average Annual Salary
162	Rapid City, SD	$39,681	$45,945
163	Valdosta, GA	$39,454	$47,195
164	Durham-Chapel Hill, NC	$39,405	$54,710
165	Flagstaff, AZ	$39,350	$60,297
166	Pueblo, CO	$39,284	$50,688
167	Evansville, IN-KY	$39,135	$47,842
168	Manhattan, KS	$38,927	$46,497
169	Muncie, IN	$38,919	$45,263
170	Colorado Springs, CO	$37,912	$55,747
171	Burlington, NC	$37,565	$45,235
172	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$37,505	$95,775
173	Kokomo, IN	$36,943	$41,227
174	Bloomington, IN	$36,224	$47,406
175	Grand Junction, CO	$35,178	$47,655
176	Prescott, AZ	$34,976	$50,646
177	Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort, SC	$32,434	$44,082
178	Honolulu, HI	$22,677	$58,094

MoneyGeek analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Council for Community and Economic Research for its analysis. Click here to view the full report.