Teacher pay lags behind rising cost of homes in Fresno County. Compare salaries here
Inflation and rising home prices are biting into teacher pay in California.
Average teacher pay in California public schools rose to $85,856 in the 2020-21 school year, an increase of 1.6% from 2019-20, new state data show.
By comparison, inflation rose by about 5% from May 2020 to May 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, meaning that California teachers typically saw their real wages drop.
Over the same period, typical home values in California rose by about 15% to $657,000, according to Zillow.
Teacher pay was highest in Silicon Valley’s Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, where teachers earned, on average, about $145,200.
A quick way to adjust pay for cost of living is to calculate the difference between average teacher salary and the cost of the typically priced home. A teacher making $145,200 in Mountain View would have a hard time buying the median-valued home in Santa Clara County, which cost about $1,560,000 at the end of 2021, according to tracking firm Zillow.com.
By that metric, the best-off teachers are in the small community of Tulelake in northeastern California, where average pay last year was $75,027 and the typically valued home cost about $163,000. The toughest place to be — by that metric — is the Ravenswood City Elementary district in San Mateo County, where the average pay is $74,400 but the typically priced home cost about $1.67 million.
More than a dozen very small districts in rural areas of California paid their teachers, on average, less than $50,000 last school year. Among districts employing at least 100 teachers, the lowest average pay was about $60,000 at River Delta Joint Unified, located in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The typically priced home in surrounding Rio Vista was worth about $485,000 at the end of 2021, according to Zillow.
Among Fresno County’s 33 districts, the highest average teacher pay last school year was about $88,469 at Kingsburg Joint Union High, located about five miles southeast of Selma. This average was about a 3% increase from the previous school year.
The lowest average pay was about $58,788 at Laton Joint Unified, located roughly 23 miles south of Fresno.
Average pay at Fresno Unified, the county’s largest district and the fourth largest in California, was about $82,576. Clovis Unified, the county’s second-largest, averaged roughly $73,614. Neither average changed from the previous school year.
At the same time, median-valued homes in Fresno County cost about $348,000 as of December 2021 and have increased 22.5% over the past year, according to estimates from Zillow.com.
Statewide, average teacher pay increased by about 11% between 2015-16 and 2020-21. By comparison, inflation rose about 12% during that time period, meaning that teachers typically are not seeing any real bump in their wages.
Average teacher pay depends on a number of factors. Pay increases with seniority, so a district with a preponderance of veteran teachers would tend to pay more on average than a district with a lot of inexperienced teachers. Cost of living also plays a role, as districts located in expensive communities must pay more to attract talent.
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.
