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No.

The average public school teacher salary in Wisconsin was just under $60,000 and ranked 23rd in the nation, according to the latest figures from the National Education Association teachers union. Starting salaries for teachers were lower than the national average, however, ranking in 34th place at $38,961.

The figures, from the 2020-21 school year, were originally published on April 23, 2021.

Wisconsin ranked 19th best for teacher salaries in a report by Business.org, which used data from the National Center on Education Statistics on average teacher salaries during the 2020-21 school year.

The $60,000 teacher salary average was 13% higher than the average salary for all occupations in Wisconsin.

In 2022, the average salary for public school teachers in Milwaukee was $66,229, and in Madison was $62,882, according to the nonprofit Wisconsin Policy Forum research group.

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

National Education Association: Educator Pay and Student Spending: How Does Your State Rank?

Business.org: Best States for Teacher Pay in 2022

Education Week: The Current State of Teacher Pay, in Charts

Wisconsin Watch: Do Wisconsin teachers make about $27,000 on average?

Wisconsin Policy Forum: School Datatool – Teacher Demographics

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Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin WatchFact Checker

Tom Kertscher joined as a Wisconsin Watch fact checker in January 2023 and contributes to our collaboration with the The Gigafact Project to fight misinformation online. Kertscher is a former longtime newspaper reporter, including at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who has worked as a self-employed journalist since 2019. His gigs include contributing writer for PolitiFact and sports freelancer for The Associated Press.