New Jersey teachers saw their median pay go up again during the last school year.
Median teacher salaries rose 3.2% to $82,780 for the 2024-25 school year, data released this week by the state Department of Education shows.
That’s up from $80,196 the previous year, according to the latest Taxpayers Guide to Education Spending, an annual release of local district financial information. (See how much teachers in your district earn in the chart below.)
Median salary means half of the teacher in the district earn more and half earn less. Individual pay for teachers varies by district, the level of experience a teacher and other factors.
The average teacher in New Jersey has over 12 years of experience, according to state data.
Median teacher pay varies greatly across the state. Larger districts that teach only upper grades and high school tend to pay higher salaries than smaller or elementary-only districts.
Northern Valley Regional had the highest median pay in the state at $121,839 during the last school year. Teachers have an average of 16.2 years of experience in the regional Bergen County district, which is comprised of two high schools that draw students from several towns in the area.
This is at least the third year in a row teachers in Northern Valley Regional had the highest median pay in the state.
For the second year in a row, Bridgeton Public Charter School has the lowest median pay at just $50,000 last school year. Teachers in the small Cumberland County K-4 school had an average of 3.6 years of experience.
Nationally, the average teacher salary is $72,030, according to the National Education Association, a national teachers union. New Jersey has the eighth highest average salary in the nation.
Teachers are public employees and typically have pre-negotiated raises in their contracts with “step” increases every few years. Contracts are negotiated by each of the state’s nearly 600 school districts.
Salary data is reported annually in the Taxpayer’s Guide to Education Spending. The data is self-reported by the districts. Some districts did not report salary data for the last school year.
