As the San Francisco educators’ strike is set to stretch into its fourth day with no end in sight, a Mission Local analysis of city payroll data found that San Francisco Unified School District teachers make significantly less than city-employed municipal workers.
The average salary for teachers in the school district is $103,472, according to the California Department of Education. Pay brackets vary based on years of service in teaching and education level.
For example, K-12 teachers just starting out earn an annual salary of $79,468 to $85,381, while those further along in their careers earn over $100,000, up to $131,654 for those with 26 to 28 years of experience and the highest education level.
Compared to city workers’ salaries across a variety of roles and departments, teachers’ average salaries are far lower — close to half that of registered nurses, around 30 percent less than police officers and city planners, and tens of thousands less than firefighters.
Mission Local calculated the average salaries for a selection of public-sector jobs using city payroll data from last year. Of the jobs analyzed, teachers rank last in pay among those that generally require a bachelor’s degree.
Wages have been a key sticking point in negotiations between union and district officials. The union is seeking nine percent raises for “credentialed” employees over two years; the district has offered six percent.
The range of teacher salaries across the Bay Area is wide, according to state data. Certified teachers in the Oakland Unified district earn an average of $84,127, and $97,383 in the South San Francisco Unified district.
Meanwhile, the average is much higher in some other nearby districts: $129,418 for San Leandro Unified district teachers and $149,175 for those at Santa Clara Unified.
While San Francisco teachers and city employees work in the same city and are subject to its financial slings and arrows, their salaries do not come from the same source.
San Francisco public schools are run by the district, which is primarily funded by the state, not the city. It runs its own budget, though the city does allocate some tax revenue.
This analysis only took into account employees who were paid a full-time base salary for a year, and does not include any additional pay, overtime or benefits. This analysis did not account for the weeks during which schools are closed and teachers have time off.
When schools are closed, teachers still have some obligations, like preparing coursework for when school goes back into session.
Generally, teachers work 35 hours a week when school is in session, and do not take much overtime. The average overtime pay paid in 2023 across all SFUSD employees was just over $1,000, according to data published by Transparent California.
But for some city employees, overtime pay is significant, which widens the gap in pay even more. Of some 24,000 city employees who worked full-time for a full year in 2025, over 1,700 received overtime pay equal to 50 percent or more of their base pay.
That often means tens of thousands of dollars a year in overtime — sometimes hundreds of thousands.
And while it is unusual, last year more than 360 municipal employees made more in overtime pay than they did in base salary. The vast majority of those are law enforcement officers in the police or sheriff’s departments.
The district is in a difficult situation. In 2024, the district projected a deficit of more than $100 million for the upcoming school year, which led to the state taking charge of the district’s financial oversight.
Student enrollment has declined. As the district receives funding from the state based upon student attendance, this adds pressure to the district to make cuts.
Amid potential cuts, however, educators say they are burdened by rising costs and low wages.
Jill Wynns, a longtime former member of the San Francisco school board, said the reason for teachers’ comparatively low salaries is straightforward: “They aren’t city employees.”
Unlike the city, the school district cannot levy fees and taxes to generate funds, unless district officials go to the ballot to pass additional tax measures.
“They’re in a box,” said Wynns, referring to the school district. “They’re not in charge of their own revenue.”
This article has been updated to include a salary range more indicative of what most district teachers earn.
We don’t get three months off. We get around 8 weeks. We are working before students are in class. Money is taken from our salary during the year and then used to pay us during summer break. We also pay for supplies for our students out of our own pocket. Create our lessons at home and do our grading at home. This means we work into the night and on weekends.
Teachers’ curriculum planning, reviewing homework, and assigning grades extend outside the school hours and classroom time, just as Zach says. Those hours doing professional work for students should be compensated and included
If that’s the case, why not negotiate for guarantees of a 40-hour week and adequate supplies so that you don’ t have to buy them yourselves?
NO other normal job can you take or get 8 weeks + off. Yet teachers expect the same salary of others who sometimes only get 2 weeks off a year???
My mom was a teacher. Its a trade off teachers signed up for in picking that career. Lower salary + more time off.
My job requires travel, working nights, weekends, and holidays. And yes I get paid more than SF teachers doing that work. Trade offs.
Left teaching for more sustainable employment.
Librarians are required to have an MLIS, not just an undergraduate degree. They also work 12 months per year and are required to work nights and weekends.
Thanks for this coverage. You mention that the district is not in charge of its own revenue. I am curious to learn more about how our city schools are funded through ERAF and the calculation of excess ERAF. It seems there was some concern that to much has been going back to the city in the form of excess ERAF because charter school attendancr is not included (2020 LAO report). Could you tell us more about that? And does San Francisco have the ability to direct more of the excess ERAF to schools if our decided to? You had an article about this a few years ago. Can you revisit the topic?
I also have become more aware of how school funding of calculated based on attendance. Currently, schools only get money if students are present – even an excused absence for illness means schools don’t get the funding for the day. This seems outdated and does not reflect the amount of work teachers are putting in (for instance by providing material online to support students who are absent for various reasons or helping students catch up during lunch and after school). Can you tell us more about that?
It seems like if, as San Franciscans and Californians, we truly want world-class public schools with excellent teachers and modern facilities, we need to put in some with to get the funding structure right.
Teachers earn credentials after their undergrad degree – sometimes that is one more year and sometimes it is rolled into a master’s. Working nights and weekends is still part of a forty hour work week, correct? I’m curious if librarians have additional work off the clock, like teachers have grading and prep. For teachers, that is highly variable but I don’t know what librarians might need to do outside work hours. You are correct about the 9.5 month work year, although many educators do work second or third jobs in the summer and that isn’t reflected in the salary. Still, I don’t think you need a college degree to be a police officer and you can retire at an early age. The salary comparisons are oversimplified. Let’s think through our comparisons so we don’t pit ourselves against each other.
Teachers work nights and weekends. How do you think kids have a lesson plan in the morning, papers graded, parent-teacher conferences, and after-school clubs? Teachers are also required to attend summer training. Many teachers also have an M.Ed. Glad I quit teaching, I have never been happier. It’s not worth the sacrifice.
Yet they seem to be striking over money, not working conditions.
Hopefully, both sides can agree on one thing: SFUSD needs more funding. Democratic leadership needs to answer the call. Time to reform Prop. 13. Meanwhile, SFUSD should look to change its own policies that have driven thousands of kids from wealthier families to private school. Just addressing these two issues alone would be game changer.
Interesting, but comparing teachers salaries to those of city workers is like comparing the sizes of different species of ants.
Useful for dividing and conquering.
Who will we ask to give up something for fairness?
Meanwhile, more than half the kids can’t perform math at grade level and barely half the kids can read at grade level.
Not really the teacher’s fault, but the school district use of substitute teachers. To save money, the district puts substitute teachers in classes, they are not credentialed for, not only do they save money, but when it comes time to make that teacher tenured they use the excuse, the teacher does not have the correct credential.There is a shortage of math and science teachers, due to the fact, that people, with math and science backgrounds,tend to go, into tech, where the pay is higher.
Why wasn’t this statement pursued by the writer: Unlike the city, the school district cannot levy fees and taxes to generate funds, unless district officials go to the ballot to pass additional tax measures. “They’re in a box,” said Wynns, referring to the school district. “They’re not in charge of their own revenue.” How does Santa Clara at $150k do it?
What happen to the monies, from the Prop 50 and the lottery that was suppose to go to the schools?
Are these statistics based upon 9 months or 12. It would seem for accuracy sake the article should list 9 months salary vs 12 for the rest of occupations, correct?
1. You really think teachers take 3 months off? Effectively it is 2.5 months off. Teachers work a lot of O.T. that is not paid, no city employee listed in that list work O.T. for free.
2. Adjust for your 9 months, then a police offer makes $112K, gets overtime for ANY time over the contract hours, and does not need to go to undergrad and a grad program.
Amen! And most teachers that I know, teach summer school, plus to make ends meet, they tutor on the side.
It’s true that teachers don’t work for 12 months/year, but MANY teachers work 50 or more hours/week. (35 hours/week in the article is their contract, and almost all teachers work beyond that.) Multiply 50 by the number of weeks in the school year, then divide by 40 hours/week, and the number of months worked is very close to 12.
Lots of teacher have to teach summer school, to make ends meet, so talk what you know!
If you are going to make a statement regarding teachers salaries vs other municipal positions, please provide the data and breakdown based on all the starting & senior step hourly wages. Thank you Daniel for raising this question.
Not to mention composition effects. How much do teachers get paid when matched to the average tenure, education, etc of librarians? Why compare teachers to cops who have far risker jobs with worse schedules.
This isn’t data journalism. It’s propaganda.
I remember sitting with a carpenter, at the now defunct, Cha Cha Cha, on Mission St.and complaining about teacher’s pay and he said that the reason, teachers are paid so low,in San Francisco, is because the union leadership, does not have dirt under their finger nails or done any heavy lifting. Both his mom and sister, were teachers,and even while he was an apprentice carpenter, he made more than both of them, and he had only a GED, they both had Masters.
This is really counterproductive. To only reveal half way through that actually you are not comparing apples to apples — that SF public school teachers are not employed by the city — is misleading and manipulative. There are different buckets of money in the world. The San Francisco city bucket pays for city workers. A state bucket pays for SF Unified…and all the other school districts in California. Is your point that we should restructure the entire governance and funding model for California school districts? Or to let the mayor run SF Unified and turn the Board of Education into a city department or another advisory body in San Francisco? Then say that. But putting that chart upfront and belaboring the pay disparity between our teachers and our librarians is pitting one set of public employees against another when they don’t even work for the same “boss” or “organization.” You are creating friction and resentment without offering any solution.
Teacher don’t work during the summer, 2.5 months, 1 week for Easter and 2 weeks for XMAS. If they worked during those off time, their salaries would be over 120k a yr.
Other city workers are required to work during the summer, Easter and XMAS for their salaries.
Hello Mission Local,
You are using the wrong occupations as a basis for comparison.
A much more accurate basis of comparison would be private sector school teachers salaries.
Not other non teaching
SF City public sector positions,
nor,
teacher salaries in
nearby suburban school districts.
What everyone seems to forgot is teachers do NOT work all year. They get ALL summer off, Thanksgiving week, 2 weeks winter break and spring break, plus all the other holidays. What other city workers has that much time off? Its NOT even close for a fair comparison vs other workers that is not called out sufficiently.
The problem here isn’t the teachers’ salaries. It’s everyone else’s.
Yea of course if you haircut everyone 20-25 percent for the summer break teachers get these numbers look very different.
Lying with statistics doesn’t help the cause. Neither does pitting workers against each other. Mission local y’all are generally wonderful but be fair
Teachers work 35 hours a week? I do not think so. When school is in session, teachers put on many, many hours and do not get “overtime”. They work on weekends, at night, and are also out at school events like sporting events, tutoring, festivals, PTO/PTA meetings, etc. Or some of them are at second jobs!
The 9-month job vs 12-month job is also a false narrative. So much work in teaching takes place over the Summer. Whether it’s lesson planning, continuing their own education, taking workshops, helping other teams, GETTING INSPIRED a teacher Summer is hardly a “break”.
For someone who touts that they write about data, I would love for that last data to have some sources. Talk to a SFUSD teacher or ANY teacher and get some real data.
I am not sure what the point is here. Clearly you would not expect all City employees to make the same. And in fact definitionally half have to be below average. So there is no argument here for teachers to get paid more, any more than that cops should get paid less.
In fact your citation that the average teacher base pay is over 100K a year tells me that they are well paid already, even without their very generous benefits and vacations.
SF teachers are not city employees. Also, they are not required to have graduate degrees, which some of the higher-paid positions do.
They ARE required to go to grad school (though not always a degree) for a year.
996, 9am to 9pm 6 days a week, seems to be the new work norm.
Until reachers start working 12 months a year with hours like the rest it is hard to feel sorry for them.
Any plans for coverage of the retired teacher benefits, which are the cause of the growing deficit and the reason we can’t pay current teachers more?
Retired teachers are in STRS, districts don’t fund them after they retire. That is why districts play the game of paying for early retirement to save money in the long run with new (cheaper) hires.
The benefits are why people do the work. Specifically for lower paying government jobs (such as teaching), the retirement package is an incentive to stay.
You get what you pay for…
It might be off topics, but the teachers protesting by Mckinley elementary school by 14th street,
they need to stop prompting cars passing by to honk.
I’m in the neighborhood, and it’s so painful.
I respected their right to speak and what they were protesting for,
but it has been their 4th day damaging peace of the neighborhood.
Are you guys like “You don’t join us, so we damage your peace”?
C’mon, I don’t have a kid, and I might be the one you wanted to persuade.
Kids who attends the school would live nearby and you damage their and everyone else’s peace?
You are not doing it for kids, but yourselves.