NJ Teachers Are Facing Hefty Pay Gap Compared To Other College Grads, Study Finds

Teachers across the nation are earning nearly 25% less than workers with similar college degrees. Here are the numbers for New Jersey.

By Eric Kiefer, Patch Staff

Sep 3, 2026 11:59 AM EDT

The Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Economic and Policy Research released a study that analyzes how much teachers earn, as compared to other workers who have college degrees. (Renee Schiavone/Patch)

Want to teach in New Jersey? Be prepared to take home a 14 percent lighter paycheck than your college peers, a new report says.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) recently released a study that analyzes how much teachers earn, as compared to other workers who have college degrees.

According to the report, New Jersey's teachers earn 86 cents on the dollar versus other "civilian professionals" such as corporate executives, accountants, software developers, engineers and scientists.

While New Jersey has a sizable pay gap for teachers, most other states have much higher "weekly wage penalties," with Colorado leading the pack at a whopping 40.7 percent. The state with the smallest gap was Rhode Island (10.4 percent).

Nationwide, the average pay penalty for teachers came to 25.2 percent in 2025 – a slight improvement from 26.9 percent the previous year. However, the teacher pay gap is still four times as much as the 6.1 percent penalty seen in 1996, researchers said.

But what about health insurance and other benefits?

"While teachers typically receive better benefits packages than other professionals, this only partially offsets the growing wage penalty that teachers face," researchers said.

After accounting for the difference in benefits, the national teachers' compensation penalty was 14.5 percent last year.

The study cites data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The sample was restricted to full-time workers (working at least 35 hours per week) aged between 18 and 64, with at least a bachelor's degree. It focused on weekly wages – rather than weekly hours worked or the length of the work year – to account for the "summers off" issue that affects teachers.

View the full report and learn about its methodology here.

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