Teacher compensation not keeping up with inflation

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – State lawmakers in Pierre have handed down education funding increases of six and seven percent the last two years, in an effort to help increase teacher salaries. Like every other industry though, inflation is eating into the purchasing power of those educators.

First reported by South Dakota Searchlight, a Department of Education report shows that since 2017, the average teacher salary in South Dakota has increased by about $6,000. Average compensation, the teacher’s salary plus other benefits, has risen by about $8,000. But inflation increases in the last two years have wiped out those increases all together.

The average statewide teacher salary in 2017 was $47,096, and in 2023 it sits at $53,217. Accounting for inflation, an educator today would need to be making about $59,000 to be matching the average salary in 2017.

School Administrators of South Dakota Executive Director Rob Monson said while South Dakota has fallen behind it’s neighbors since the Blue Ribbon Task Force seven years ago, the funding increases from the state legislature have been a welcome effort to try and get the state back into competing for teacher salaries.

“We were very fortunate the last couple of legislative sessions that there was some monies to be handed out, in six and seven percent increases. That’s enormous to anyone, especially educators,” Monson said.

But inflation eating to those increases has been a challenge for teachers and school districts, who are having to also pay more for materials such as fuel for heating. Associated School Boards of South Dakota Executive Director Doug Wermedal said those funding increases have to pay for everything, not just teacher salaries. While he said districts try and get as much as that to teachers as possible, they still have to also pay increases for support staff, and education is far from the only industry looking for help from Pierre.

“Education is not the only industry dealing with that. Inflation has certainly outpaced earnings, particularly in the last two or three years. It’s been pretty aggressive,” Wermedal said.

“That will be a challenge to not only educators, but to state workers and the medical providers. With the inflationary increases, and coming with a small percentage increase like that, to meet the expenses of every day life will absolutely be a challenge,” Monson said. “We’re really at the whim of the monies that come from the legislature, and I do believe most schools are doing everything they can to put every dollar they receive into the hands of the people that need it,”

But is there some hope that those fears will be taken into account by the state legislature, as the final report from the Teacher Compensation Review Boards calls out inflation specifically.

MORE: Teacher Compensation Review Board sends final report

“I am pleased to see that in the Teacher Compensation Review report, that that committee did see fit to call out inflation as a factor that needs to be monitored when determining teacher salaries,” Wermedal said.

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