California teacher pay rose last year. Here’s how much Sacramento-area districts paid
Teacher pay in California rose sharply last school year as educators demanded their salaries keep up with rising inflation.
Average pay for teachers in California public schools rose to $95,160 in the 2022-23 school year, an increase of 7.5% from 2021-22, new state data show.
The sharp increase comes after years of modest pay increases that often didn’t match inflation. Statewide, average teacher pay increased by about 23% between 2015-16 and 2022-23. By comparison, inflation rose about 26% during the same period.
Teacher pay was highest in Silicon Valley’s Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, where teachers earned, on average, about $161,600.
A quick way to adjust pay for cost of living is to calculate the difference between the average teacher salary and the cost of the typically priced home. A teacher making $161,600 in Mountain View would have a hard time buying the median-valued home in Santa Clara County, which costs about $1,494,000 at the end of 2023, according to real estate tracking firm Zillow. By that metric, many of the best-off teachers are in rural districts where salaries are relatively modest, but home prices are low.
