LANSING, Mich. (WOWO) — Michigan teachers have experienced a larger inflation-adjusted decline in average pay over the past three decades than teachers in any other state, according to a new analysis from Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative.

The study, “Teacher Compensation in Michigan: Recent Trends and Public Opinion,” found that Michigan’s average teacher salary has fallen 29% since its inflation-adjusted peak in 1995.

That translates to a drop from an inflation-adjusted $100,064 in 1995 to $71,023 in 2025 dollars, according to the analysis.

The decline puts Michigan nearly 10 percentage points behind the next-worst state, Indiana, where inflation-adjusted teacher pay declined 20.7%, according to the study.

The findings come as Michigan continues to deal with challenges recruiting and retaining teachers. EPIC, the MSU research group behind the study, has conducted annual research on teacher compensation since 2024 and has previously warned that Michigan’s pay levels are losing ground to both other states and similarly educated workers in other professions.

Michigan’s position is particularly weak for teachers just entering the profession.

The state’s average starting teacher salary was approximately $43,093 in 2025, according to National Education Association data cited in the study. That places Michigan 45th nationally for starting teacher pay.

The state’s position has deteriorated substantially over the past decade. Michigan ranked 31st nationally for starting teacher pay in 2017, according to the study.

The current starting salary is also about $5,000 below the national average.

Michigan’s overall ranking has also slipped, although not nearly as dramatically as its starting-pay ranking.

The state was regularly among the nation’s top 10 states for average teacher salaries from 1970 through 2007, according to the MSU analysis. By 2025, Michigan ranked 22nd nationally, with an average teacher salary of $71,023. The National Education Association’s 2026 educator-pay data confirms that ranking and figure.

The issue isn’t simply how much teachers make in nominal dollars. The researchers’ analysis accounts for inflation, showing that purchasing power has fallen substantially from Michigan’s earlier peak.

At the same time, public opinion suggests Michigan residents generally support increasing teacher compensation.

EPIC surveyed 1,000 Michigan adults for the study.

Nearly 72% said starting teacher salaries should increase. About 25% said starting pay should remain around its current level, while approximately 3% said starting salaries should decrease.

When asked what an appropriate starting salary would be, respondents put the figure at about $55,074.

That is roughly $12,000 higher than Michigan’s current average starting salary.

Support for higher compensation extends to teachers with more experience, although respondents were somewhat more divided.

About 40% of those surveyed said average teacher salaries should increase, while 50% said they should remain about the same. Ten percent said experienced teachers should receive less.

Those surveyed said an experienced teacher should earn approximately $75,300.

Jason Burns, an EPIC research specialist and lead author of the report, said the findings point to a disconnect between Michigan’s current compensation levels and what residents believe teachers should earn.

“Teacher compensation in Michigan has decreased kind of across the board for a while now,” Burns said. “But what we see is that there’s pretty strong public support for reversing that.”

Burns said that support could give lawmakers an opportunity to address teacher compensation as they consider education policy and the state’s ongoing teacher shortage.

The MSU research also identifies possible approaches to increasing pay.

One option would be establishing a statewide salary schedule that standardizes raises according to factors such as experience or performance.

Another would be creating a statewide minimum salary for new teachers.

Burns said the idea of a minimum teacher salary has significant public support.

“Roughly two in three Michiganders support the state setting a minimum teacher salary,” he said.

The concept comes as Michigan districts continue to report difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified educators. A separate annual EPIC teacher-shortage report has found continued challenges with teacher turnover and matching educators’ credentials with schools’ staffing needs.

The compensation debate also comes as Michigan has already taken some steps to provide additional money to educators.

The Michigan Department of Education says lawmakers appropriated funding for an educator compensation program for fiscal year 2026. The money was distributed to local and intermediate school districts and public school academies, with eligible uses including compensation increases and costs associated with retiree health benefits.

But researchers say those efforts have not reversed the longer-term trend in teacher pay.

The 2025 EPIC compensation report found Michigan teachers were already losing ground to educators in other states and to similarly educated workers in other professions. That report found Michigan’s average teacher salary ranking had dropped to 19th nationally at the time, while starting pay ranked 44th.

The newest figures show the starting-pay ranking has fallen further, to 45th, even as Michigan’s overall average salary ranking has improved to 22nd.

That gap between starting and average pay reflects one of the challenges facing new teachers: Michigan may have relatively stronger salaries for experienced educators, but entry-level compensation is much less competitive nationally.

The researchers argue that compensation matters not only for teachers themselves but also for schools and students according to WLNS.

Burns said providing teachers with the financial compensation and resources they need can affect the quality and stability of the education workforce.

“Having good outcomes for students is not just good for those individual students; it’s also good for communities; it’s good for the state overall,” Burns said.

He pointed to broader economic consequences when students succeed.

“When students have better outcomes, the economy is stronger, there’s less reliance on social services, and so everybody benefits from having a strong education system, even if you don’t have kids in the system or children at all,” Burns said.

The researchers also point to the importance of teachers themselves in student achievement.

“What lots of research has shown us is that teachers are the most important school-related factor that shapes student outcomes,” Burns said.

The study is the third Michigan teacher compensation report produced by EPIC since 2024.

Its findings put the state’s teacher-pay debate in the context of a broader workforce problem: Michigan is trying to recruit and retain educators while its inflation-adjusted compensation has fallen dramatically from where it stood three decades ago.

For state policymakers, the question now is whether Michigan will make larger changes to teacher compensation — and how those increases would be funded.

The public-opinion findings suggest there is substantial support for higher starting salaries and, to a lesser extent, higher salaries for experienced teachers.

The latest data from the National Education Association puts Michigan’s average teacher salary at $71,023 and its average starting salary at $43,093 for the 2024-25 school year.

The MSU researchers say those figures tell a broader story: Michigan remains a state with a significant education workforce need, but its teacher compensation has not kept pace with inflation or the pay gains seen elsewhere.

For teachers entering Michigan classrooms, that loss of purchasing power is particularly pronounced — and for lawmakers, the findings provide another measure of the challenge facing the state’s schools.