Table 1
Numbers and shares of public and private school teachers who currently fall below the FLSA standard salary threshold and would therefore be affected if the teacher exemption were removed from the FLSA, by selected characteristics
| Total number of teachers | Share of all teachers | Number of teachers below the threshold | Share of group that is below the threshold | Number of teachers in the group that are below the threshold, as a share of all teachers below threshold | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | 6,476,059 | 100.0% | 1,543,733 | 23.8% | 100.0% |
| Gender | |||||
| Women | 4,555,480 | 70.3% | 1,131,417 | 24.8% | 73.3% |
| Men | 1,920,579 | 29.7% | 412,316 | 21.5% | 26.7% |
| Race/ethnicity | |||||
| White | 4,864,659 | 75.1% | 1,092,216 | 22.5% | 70.8% |
| Black | 598,962 | 9.2% | 155,959 | 26.0% | 10.1% |
| Hispanic | 599,237 | 9.3% | 167,088 | 27.9% | 10.8% |
| Asian | 365,831 | 5.6% | 115,944 | 31.7% | 7.5% |
| Other | 47,369 | 0.7% | 12,525 | 26.4% | 0.8% |
| Age | |||||
| Under 25 | 400,498 | 6.2% | 269,627 | 67.3% | 17.5% |
| 25–54 | 4,641,448 | 71.7% | 892,756 | 19.2% | 57.8% |
| 55–64 | 1,015,709 | 15.7% | 209,693 | 20.6% | 13.6% |
| Over 65 | 418,403 | 6.5% | 171,657 | 41.0% | 11.1% |
| Education level | |||||
| Less than four-year college degree | 552,064 | 8.5% | 369,740 | 67.0% | 24.0% |
| Four-year college degree | 2,396,194 | 37.0% | 655,907 | 27.4% | 42.5% |
| Advanced degree | 3,527,801 | 54.5% | 518,087 | 14.7% | 33.6% |
| Occupation | |||||
| Elementary and middle school teachers | 3,407,222 | 52.6% | 723,708 | 21.2% | 46.9% |
| Postsecondary teachers | 1,321,148 | 20.4% | 412,758 | 31.2% | 26.7% |
| Preschool and kindergarten teachers | 231,358 | 3.6% | 76,614 | 33.1% | 5.0% |
| Secondary school teachers | 1,027,785 | 15.9% | 161,481 | 15.7% | 10.5% |
| Special education teachers | 361,337 | 5.6% | 73,084 | 20.2% | 4.7% |
| Other teachers and instructors | 127,209 | 2.0% | 96,088 | 75.5% | 6.2% |
| Work status | |||||
| Full-time | 5,443,639 | 84.1% | 723,196 | 13.3% | 46.8% |
| Part-time | 1,032,419 | 15.9% | 820,538 | 79.5% | 53.2% |
| Pay periodicity | |||||
| Hourly | 765,153 | 11.8% | 500,376 | 65.4% | 32.4% |
| Salaried | 5,710,906 | 88.2% | 1,043,357 | 15.6% | 67.6% |
Notes: Based on teachers’ weekly earnings as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis of the Current Population Survey, 2017–2019. The current standard threshold is $684 per week. Pay periodicity refers to the time frame for the pay the teacher reported their salary in their response to the CPS questionnaire.
Source: Authors’ analysis of EPI Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.22 (2021), https://microdata.epi.org.
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