Kentucky ranks near bottom for teacher salaries

KENTUCKY (FOX 56) — The teacher shortage is a nationwide problem—and Kentucky is no exception.

“We’re seeing teacher shortages every single year,” said Jessica Hiler, vice president of the Kentucky Education Association. “Last school year, we had a little under 300 teaching positions that remained vacant across the state.”

So what’s behind the shortage? According to Hiler, much of it comes down to compensation.

Kentucky competes with seven border states to recruit and retain qualified educators. Of those eight states, only Missouri ranks lower—coming in 49th nationally in both average teacher salary and average starting pay.

In 2025, Kentucky ranked 42nd in the country in average teacher salary and 48th in starting salary. Support staff in Kentucky ranks 49^th in pay.

“We have to have hard conversations with our legislators here at the state level and at the federal level about making sure that we have educators paid at a competitive rate so that they want to stay in public service,” Hiler said.

There has been some progress—the state’s average teacher salary increased by 3.6% from the year prior. But when adjusted for inflation, teacher pay in Kentucky still lags behind 2008 salaries. 

“Our teachers and our staff wear all of these different hats. They’re not just teachers, but they’re also a nurse and social worker and counselor and mom and dad in a lot of cases, so we really need to be considering that,” Hiler added.

And without enough teachers in classrooms, students ultimately suffer.

“If we want to invest in the future of our students, we need to invest in our educators, said Hiler. “In order to solve these issues, because we are continuing to have issues with teacher shortages, we’re not seeing this go away, and I really don’t see the trend changing for a while until we can really get on board with supporting our teachers and our school staff.”