Table 1

The teacher compensation penalty grew to 14.2% in 2021: Trends in the teacher total compensation penalty, selected years, 1979–2021

W-2 wage share of compensation Public school teachers
Year Professionals Public school teachers Wage penalty Benefits advantage Compensation penalty
1979 n.a. n.a. -7.3% n.a. n.a.
1993 n.a. n.a. -5.1% 2.4% -2.7%
2004 81.3% 79.3% -12.8% 2.2% -10.7%
2007 80.7% 77.2% -11.7% 4.0% -7.7%
2010 79.8% 75.6% -11.9% 4.9% -7.1%
2017 78.1% 71.4% -20.9% 7.4% -13.5%
2018 78.5% 70.9% -22.0% 8.3% -13.7%
2019 78.6% 70.7% -19.2% 9.0% -10.2%
2020 78.4% 70.5% -21.6% 8.8% -12.8%
2021 78.5% 70.1% -23.5% 9.3% -14.2%
Percentage-point change
1979–1991 n.a. n.a. 2.0 n.a. n.a.
1993–2007 n.a. n.a. -6.6 1.6 -5.0
1994–2007 -0.6 -2.1 n.a. n.a. n.a.
2007–2019 -2.1 -6.5 -7.5 5.0 -2.5
2007–2021 -2.1 -7.1 -11.8 5.3 -6.5
2019–2020 -0.1 -0.2 -2.4 -0.1 -2.5
2020–2021 0.1 -0.4 -1.9 0.4 -1.5
2019–2021 0.0 -0.7 -4.3 0.3 -4.0
1993–2021 n.a. n.a. -18.4 6.9 -11.5

Notes: The benefits advantage is the degree to which higher benefits offset the wage penalty. See the “Computing the Benefits Advantage” section in Appendix A of Allegretto and Mishel 2019 for data and methodology details. “n.a.” indicates that data are not available. Explanations of missing data and other data issues are documented in the “Historical Data Issues” section of the 2019 appendix.

Source: Author’s analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group data and Bureau of Labor Statistics Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data.

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