Teacher Salary by Metro Area
Teacher salary by metro area has a surprise at the top of the table. The best-paid metro for elementary school teachers in the BLS data is not San Francisco, not New York, not Seattle. It is El Centro, California, at $110,420 a year. I had to read that twice the first time I saw it.
The numbers below come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2023 release, for elementary school teachers except special education. That is the BLS occupation code 25-2021, the classroom teachers most people picture when they say "teacher." Here is the top of the ranking:
| Metro area | Mean annual wage |
|---|---|
| El Centro, CA | $110,420 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA | $103,520 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA | $102,960 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $97,240 |
| Merced, CA | $96,980 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $96,730 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | $96,450 |
| Visalia-Porterville, CA | $95,890 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $95,630 |
| Napa, CA | $95,370 |
Why California runs the table
Eight of the top ten metros sit in California. That is not a coincidence of one survey year; California teacher pay has topped these tables for a long time. The state runs on published district salary schedules that reward education credits and years of service, and it combines high living costs with strong teacher unions. The result is nominal wages that beat almost everywhere else.
El Centro leading the list tells you something important about how teacher labor markets work. El Centro is in Imperial County, farm country near the Mexican border, not a place anyone associates with high pay. But districts there compete for credentialed teachers in a small labor pool, and the salary schedule does what salary schedules do. The $110,420 is a mean, too, so the long-serving teachers at the top of the schedule pull it up. A first-year teacher in El Centro does not walk in making six figures.
What nominal pay hides
Remember that $110,420 from the top of the table? It buys a different life in El Centro than $103,520 buys in San Francisco. Nominal rankings answer the question "who gets the biggest number." They do not answer "who lives best on it." Housing costs eat the California premium fast, and they eat it fastest exactly where the nominal numbers look most impressive.
This is the mistake I see in every "best places to teach" listicle that just sorts the BLS table. Sort the table and you get a leaderboard. Adjust for what a dollar buys and the leaderboard scrambles. The salary by metro dataset on this site lets you run both views, nominal and adjusted, which is the only honest way to compare two metros.
One more trap: these are means, not medians. For teachers the mean runs a little hotter than the median because the veterans at the top of the schedule drag it up. If you want the typical paycheck, not the average of everyone, look at the median and the 25th and 75th percentiles. The spread between them is where your negotiation actually lives.
Frequently asked questions
Which metro area pays teachers the most?
For elementary school teachers in the May 2023 BLS OEWS data, El Centro, California leads at $110,420 mean annual wage, ahead of San Francisco at $103,520. California metros take most of the top ten.
Do teachers earn more in bigger cities?
Not always. Large metros like New York and San Francisco pay well, but smaller California metros like El Centro, Merced, and Visalia outrank many bigger cities on teacher wages, mostly because of state-level salary schedules.
Why does California dominate teacher pay rankings?
California school districts operate on published salary schedules that reward education level and years of service, and the state has both high living costs and strong teacher unions. The combination pushes nominal teacher wages above most of the country.
What is the difference between mean and median teacher wages in BLS data?
The mean is the average across all workers in the occupation; the median is the midpoint, half earn more and half earn less. For teachers the mean can run higher than the median because experienced, highly credentialed teachers at the top of salary schedules pull it up. The median is usually the better guide to a typical paycheck.
How current is the BLS metro wage data?
The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey runs annually with roughly a year of lag: May 2023 estimates were published in spring 2024. Treat the figures as a solid baseline for comparisons, not as today's exact number.
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