Proposed teacher raises: How would NC stack up?

North Carolina teachers are likely to get a raise next year, after spending this school year on the same pay scale as last year.

But what that looks like depends on each teacher's experience level, as state lawmakers continue to emphasize pay raises for the state's earliest-career teachers over mid- and later-career teachers.

North Carolina hasn't kept up with both inflation or its neighbors in terms of teacher pay for years, at all levels of experience. It's a struggle that was a main feature of a North Carolina Association of Education-organized rally May 1 attended by thousands of educators and supporters in downtown Raleigh, calling for more school funding.

The proposal --- which came from the Republican-led House and Senate this week --- would help the state shrink those gaps in some ways, though not eliminate them.

The proposal would push starting teacher pay by 17% from $41,000 to $48,000. That's the highest starting teacher pay, when adjusted for inflation, in at least 20 years, if not ever, according to a WRAL News review of years of state salary schedules and Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation data.

"It's an area that we are particularly out of line with our neighbors as far as starting pay," Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, told reporters Wednesday.

The same increases aren't in line for more experienced teachers, though they'll get a boost of 5.5%, after not being eligible for any pay increases this year. That pay bump will surpass the rate of inflation for the past couple of years but not when compared to the rate of inflation over most of the past three decades.

Berger said a bonus, yet to detailed, will level that somewhat.

The least experienced teachers will get a smaller bonus, and the most experienced teachers will get a bigger bonus, he said.

The proposal represents some progress for educators and public education advocates, though some have told WRAL News it still isn't enough because of the years of lagging pay for teachers with 15 or more years of experience.

Notably, the proposed salary schedules would keep pay flat for teachers with the most experience, freezing pay after 15 years until they reach 25 years, then freezing it again. That system has been in place since the 2014-15 school year.

Since then, lawmakers have raised salaries for the state's youngest teachers and provided the leanest base pay increases for the most experienced ones.

That's drawn the ire of educators for years, who contend that the salaries for the most experienced teachers are now being suppressed well below the rate of inflation since they were initially frozen.

"$50,000 starting pay would be amazing, but we also need to up the pay for our veteran teachers as well," Charlotte-Mecklenburg teacher Anita Walker said during the May 1 rally.

It's a common sentiment.

Keith Poston, executive director of WakeEd Partnership, said Thursday he'd hoped lawmakers would have ended the freeze.

"Our veteran teachers need to be getting raises too," said Poston, whose organization runs a free supply store for teachers and has advocated for increased supply funding. "I understand the concept of wanting to get people to hire them, to... be competitive, to get high beginning pay for teachers."

But Poston worries veteran teachers have felt left out for years. He's happy to see movement toward pay raises but wants to see more.

"We should not be losing to South Carolina," he said. "And we’re losing teachers who can just move across the border and make more. We should want our teachers to be the best paid in the region, so our students get the best teachers."

A 25-year teacher during the 2013-14 school year, for example, would have earned $45,150, equivalent to about $62,760 in today's dollars, according to state salary schedules and inflation data. That salary today is $55,950. Under the proposal, it would rise to $59,000.

Before the Great Recession in 2008 hampered state revenues and led to austerity in teacher pay, a 25-year teacher would have earned well more than $70,000 in today's dollars.

It's a similar story for teachers with 15 years of experience but not as extreme. When adjusted for inflation, the 2027 proposal keeps up when compared to some years but not when compared to most.

Later-career salaries also have an implication on a key issue for more veteran teachers: their pensions.

Pension payouts in retirement are based on employees' four highest-earning years.

Pensions are a key resource for attracting and retaining people in the public sector, seen as a reward by many teachers for earning less than a typical Bachelor's degree holder during their working years.

North Carolina this school year is behind its neighbors both in terms of state contributions to teacher pay and in terms of how much its largest school systems are paying its teachers, according to a WRAL News review of state and school district salary schedules.

North Carolina and its four neighboring states all contribute to teacher pay, and local school districts all contribute some on top of that.

Here's state minimum and maximum pay for teachers this year:

• North Carolina: $41,000 starting, $55,950 at 25 years and later

• South Carolina: $48,500 starting, $62,500 at 28 years

• Georgia: At least $43,600 starting, at least $60,800 at 21 years and later

• Tennessee: $47,000 starting

Tennessee's starting pay is set to become $50,000 next year.

Virginia's contribution is based on a formula and not the same for every district.

Here's a sampling of teacher pay in states' largest districts:

• Wake County: $48,000 starting, $70,000 at 30 years

• Charlotte-Mecklenburg: $49,000 starting, $70,000 at 30 years

• Atlanta: $62,000 starting, $90,000 at 28 years

• Cobb County (Georgia): $61,000 starting, $89,000 at 28 years

• Gwinnett County (Georgia): $60,000 starting, $84,000 at 30 years

• Nashville, $54,000 starting, $77,000 at 28 years

• Greenville (South Carolina): $52,000 starting, $75,000 at 30 years

• Rock Hill (South Carolina): $52,000 starting, $74,000 at 27 years

• Richmond (Virginia): $59,000 starting, $83,000 at 30 years

• Virginia Beach: $56,000 starting, $87,000 at 30 years

North Carolina as a state funds most of teacher pay, via appropriations from the General Assembly.

Lawmakers establish the base pay for every county and adds some more for most of the state's 100 counties in the form of a supplement funded via another line item. The counties exempt from it are the biggest ones with the greatest tax base, such as Wake and Mecklenburg.

School systems can pay that supplementary salary funding in the form of salaries or bonuses. They can total about $700 to $5,000 per teacher, a figure that can vary county-to-county and year-to-year based on county income level.

The state also offers teachers a 12% increase to their state base pay, if they obtain National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification. That's a five-year certification that can cost about $2,000 to obtain the first time. It's a program backed by research to improve teacher performance and more than 3,000 teachers in North Carolina have it, out of about 100,000 public school teachers.

After the state, counties can raise their own funds to supplement pay. These are often paid in the form of salary or bonuses and may be based on certain criteria not all teachers qualify for.