Variation in Teacher Salaries in Georgia

• FRC Report 183 Version
• 3519 Download
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• August 1, 2008 Create Date
• February 13, 2020 Last Updated

FRC Report 183, August 01, 2008, John V. Winters

Teacher pay is an important issue for Georgia. For the 2006 Fiscal Year, the 180 school districts in Georgia combined to spend $12.4 billion on primary and secondary education with teacher salaries accounting for 42 percent of total expenditures. The average salary for full-time non-vocational K-12 public school teachers in Georgia was $51,323 during the 2007-08 school year, but there is a great deal of variation in teacher salaries both within and across school districts. This report documents the variation in K-12 public school teacher salaries in Georgia and discusses the causes of variation in teacher salaries within and across districts. Variation within school districts results primarily from differences in experience and education. Teachers with many years of experience and advanced education are paid much more than those with no teaching experience and only a bachelor’s degree. Variation in teacher salaries across districts results from differences in experience and education and differences in local salary schedules. In this paper, we analyze the determinants of the differences in teacher salaries across Georgia. Regression analysis reveals that local supplements (payments exceeding the state minimum salary schedule) are affected by a number of factors including teacher education, teacher experience, average enrollment per school, wages of comparable workers, property tax wealth, and the composition of the property tax base.

About the Author

John V. Winters is a research associate in the Fiscal Research Center of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University and is currently finishing his Ph.D. in Economics. His research interests include state and local public finance, urban and regional economics, and the economics of education. John Winters is from Mississippi and holds a B.A. in economics from Mississippi State University and a M.A. in economics from Georgia State University.