COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOWO) — Ohio’s average public school teacher salary ranks 23rd nationally, while the state’s average starting salary ranks near the bottom of the country, according to data from the National Education Association.
Ohio public school teachers earned an average of $70,586 during the 2024-25 school year, compared with a national average of $74,495, according to the NEA. Ohio’s average starting teacher salary was $42,222, ranking 46th nationally, while the national average starting salary was $48,112.
The figures come as Ohio’s candidates for governor, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton, are calling for higher teacher compensation according to the Ohio Capital Journal.
Jeff Wensing, president of the Ohio Education Association, said the salary numbers show Ohio is falling behind both in starting pay and overall teacher compensation.
“Education needs to be a sustainable career where you can support your family and raise a family,” Wensing said. “You need to attract really talented individuals to go into the education profession. Once you attract them, you need to keep them.”
Ramaswamy has said he wants to increase compensation for high-performing educators, with his campaign describing a goal of paying the best teachers more to reward excellence and attract top talent to the profession.
In a Sept. 19 Facebook video, Ramaswamy said he believes starting pay for teachers, particularly in public schools, should be higher than the roughly $38,000 to $40,000 figure he cited.
Wensing disputed that characterization of Ohio’s current starting compensation, noting that state law sets the base salary for a new teacher with a bachelor’s degree at $35,000.
“I would think, as a gubernatorial candidate, you would know what the minimum teacher salary is in your state,” Wensing said.
Ramaswamy’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment for the Ohio Capital Journal report.
Acton, meanwhile, has called for increasing teacher compensation across the board. The Ohio Education Association has endorsed Acton in the governor’s race.
Acton campaign spokeswoman Virginia Schaus said Acton has a personal connection to public education and would make teacher compensation part of a broader effort to increase public school funding.
“Dr. Acton will fight to fully fund public schools to give local school districts the resources they need to raise teacher pay and attract and retain our teachers,” Schaus said.
Acton’s husband is a longtime public school teacher, and Schaus said Acton credits public schools with helping her as a child.
The debate over teacher pay comes as Ohio schools face staffing challenges.
In 2025, one out of every eight teaching positions in Ohio was either vacant or filled by an educator who was considered underqualified, according to the report.
Wensing said compensation is one factor contributing to educators leaving the profession.
“Educators are leaving the profession to find some careers that can help their families out better and make their ends meet a little bit better,” he said.
One proposal before the Ohio Legislature would raise the state’s minimum teacher salary to $50,000.
Ohio Democratic state Reps. Joe Miller and Michele Grim introduced House Bill 191 in 2025. The measure has received one committee hearing. If lawmakers do not pass the bill before the current two-year legislative session ends in December, the legislation would have to be introduced again.
Teacher compensation is also being do not provide additional pay specifically aimed at attracting or retaining teachers in hard-to-staff schools or subjects, according to a examined through the lens of where shortages are most severe.
Ohio is among 32 states that do not provide additional pay specifically aimed at attracting or retaining teachers in hard-to-staff schools or subjects, according to a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality.
The organization defines hard-to-staff subjects as those experiencing persistent vacancies. Those can include special education, English as a second language, high school mathematics and science.
Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said hard-to-staff schools can include those serving higher-poverty communities or rural areas where school districts have fewer potential highest-need assignments. Its recommendation calls for a salary supplement of at least applicants from which to recruit.
The NCTQ recommends that states provide additional compensation for teachers working in the highest-need assignments. Its recommendation calls for a salary supplement of at least 7.5% for teachers in those positions.
Peske said research examined by the organization indicates that targetedCTQ also recommends giving high-performing teachers opportunities to earn additional compensation financial incentives can improve teacher retention.
“We see that when states are offering differentiated pay — either based on shortages and vacancies in subjects, or based on differentiation by performance — we see that the first impact is higher retention of teachers,” Peske said.
The NCTQ also recommends giving high-performing teachers opportunities to earn additional compensation based on established evaluation criteria.
Ohio’s overall teacher payroll was estimated at approximately $7 billion during the 2024-25 school year, according to the NCTQ.
The salary figures and competing proposals put teacher compensation at the center of Ohio’s gubernatorial campaign as candidates debate how the state can recruit and retain educators while addressing vacancies in schools across the state.
