Despite concerns about teacher shortages, schools are not adjusting salary scales effectively to attract new teachers, according to a recent study by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor Paul Bruno.
Amid growing concerns about teacher shortages, a recent study by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests that schools are not strategically adjusting their salary schedules to attract novice teachers. This lack of competitive salary adjustments is contributing to the ongoing struggle to recruit and retain qualified educators.
Published in the Labor Studies Journal, the study was conducted by Paul Bruno, a professor of education policy, organization and leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Bruno’s research indicates that when schools in a district increase teacher salaries by 1%, nearby districts only raise their pay scales by a marginal 0.15% to 0.25%. This minimal response is insufficient to attract new teachers and fill vacancies.
“I don’t find much evidence that school districts are raising their salaries when neighboring districts are in order to compete strategically as they could or should, with all of the current concerns we have about teacher shortages,” Bruno said in a news release. “That’s particularly concerning if we want school districts to be thinking carefully about how to get the best teachers into the classrooms that need them.”
The study also highlighted that salary increases are often “backloaded,” meaning they come later in a teacher’s career rather than at entry-level, where they might be most beneficial for recruitment efforts.
“Some previous research suggested that it might be more advantageous if school districts increased the salaries for novice and early-career teachers to be more competitive with neighboring districts and that’s what motivated this analysis,” Bruno added.
Concerns about a nationwide teacher shortage are intensifying. A study Bruno co-authored in 2024 estimated that there are at least 39,700 unfilled teaching positions and 288,000 positions occupied by underqualified teachers across the United States. These alarming statistics were cited in the 2025 Economic Report of the President, reflecting the urgent need for strategic changes in teacher pay structures.
The current study focused on 498 California school districts, analyzing salary and benefit schedules from 2009-2010 to 2018-2019. It specifically examined pay scales for teachers with a bachelor’s degree and an additional 60 educational credits. Various control variables, such as student demographics and district enrollment trends, were included to ensure comprehensive analysis.
On average, salary increases were modest and more advantageous to mid-career teachers rather than entry-level ones.
For instance, a 1% pay hike at Step 1 of the salary scale translated to about $554 for entry-level teachers, compared to $898 for experienced teachers at Step 30. However, when neighboring districts increased their salaries by the same amount, the effect was a meager $97 increase for novice teachers and $130 for experienced teachers in other districts.
“My results suggest that even if schools are somewhat sensitive to neighboring districts’ teacher salaries, they do not respond in optimally strategic ways,” Bruno added. “Even where unions are increasing teacher salaries, they don’t seem to be increasing the pay for brand new teachers because the raises are disproportionately benefitting experienced teachers.”
Bruno argued that unions might play a role in this trend, as they tend to prioritize salary increases for more experienced and influential members. He recommended that unions engage more actively with early-career teachers to ensure their interests are also represented in salary negotiations.