Kentucky Teaching Salaries: Schedules, District Variation, and Pensions

The average Kentucky teacher salary was $58,325 for the 2023–2024 school year, placing Kentucky 42nd nationally, according to the National Education Association. Starting pay sits well below that average. New teachers earned about $40,161 on average that year, ranking 48th in the country. Measured against other college-educated workers in the state, Kentucky teachers earn roughly 69 cents on the dollar.¹

Numbers moved slightly in the following year. For 2024–2025, the average starting salary rose to $41,901 and the average top-of-scale salary reached $71,178, lifting the starting-pay rank to 47th and the top-pay rank to 39th.²

What the State Minimum Salary Schedule Pays

The Kentucky Department of Education sets a statewide minimum salary schedule, and districts can pay above it. Pay is organized by two things: your educational rank and your years of experience. Rank III is a bachelor’s degree, Rank II is a master’s, Rank I is a master’s plus 30 additional graduate hours, and the top tier is a doctorate.

Under the minimum schedule effective July 1, 2025, a teacher on a 12-month contract with a bachelor’s degree and zero to four years of experience earns at least $58,114. A master’s degree at the same experience level raises the floor to $62,414. Rank I pays $66,533, and a doctorate pays $72,921. Experience adds to that floor. A Rank III teacher with 20 or more years earns a minimum of $65,579 on a 12-month contract, compared to the $58,114 starting figure.³

When you earn a new rank, the salary adjustment is retroactive to July 1 if the rank change is verified by September 1. You receive either the pay listed for the new cell on the schedule or a 5 percent raise, whichever is greater.³

How Pay Varies By District

The statewide average hides a wide spread. As of 2018–2019, 159 of Kentucky’s 173 school districts had average teacher salaries below the state average, which was pulled upward by the larger Fayette County and Jefferson County systems. The Anchorage Independent School District reported the highest average at $67,488.⁴ At the other end, starting pay in some districts was as low as $34,004 as recently as 2023.⁵

Local raises have also been modest. After the 2024–2026 state budget passed without dedicated raise funding, the typical district increased salaries by only 2 percent, 40 districts gave no raise at all, and in over 60 percent of districts the increase trailed the 2.9 percent inflation rate.⁶ Starting salaries have not kept pace with inflation over the longer term either, which rose roughly 25 percent between 2014 and 2023 while beginning pay in many districts barely moved.⁷

How Kentucky Compares to Nearby States

Kentucky trails most of its neighbors on both starting and top salaries. The 2024–2025 figures:²

Kentucky: $41,901 starting; $71,178 top
Virginia: $50,448 starting; $85,329 top
Tennessee: $47,230 starting; $75,942 top
West Virginia: $45,294 starting; $73,243 top
Ohio: $42,222 starting; $92,196 top

Ohio’s starting pay is only slightly above Kentucky’s, but its top salary exceeds Kentucky’s by more than $21,000. For 2023–2024, Illinois averaged $75,978 and Indiana $58,620, both above Kentucky.¹ Kentucky school administrators have noted that Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana have all set minimum starting salaries at or near $50,000, a threshold Kentucky has not approached.⁸

Cost of living softens the comparison. One analysis found that after adjusting for cost of living, Kentucky moves to roughly 15th in the nation.⁹ Even so, the $58,325 state average falls below the $60,408 that the Economic Policy Institute estimates a single parent with one child needs for a modest standard of living in Kentucky’s most affordable metro area.¹

Pension Contributions and Benefits

Take-home pay is noticeably smaller than the gross salary because Kentucky teachers contribute heavily to their pension. Non-university teachers in the older membership tiers (TRS 1, 2, and 3) contribute 12.855 percent of pretax salary to the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System. Teachers who entered the system on or after January 1, 2022 (TRS 4) contribute 14.75 percent.¹⁰ TRS 4 members can also make voluntary contributions to a supplemental 403(b) plan.¹¹ On a $40,000 salary, that works out to roughly $5,140 to $5,900 going to the pension system before any taxes are withheld. One superintendent has noted that a starting salary of $34,000 can drop to less than $25,000 after taxes and mandatory pension contributions.⁸

What you get in exchange is a defined benefit pension. KTRS manages more than $28.3 billion in assets and pays out over $2.4 billion annually in annuity benefits. Most KTRS members do not participate in Social Security; the system describes its retirement benefit as roughly three times the average Social Security check at a comparable contribution cost.¹²

School employees are also eligible for the Kentucky Employees’ Health Plan, which covers nearly 294,000 members and offers multiple plan options, including consumer-directed and PPO designs, with dental, vision, and life insurance available.¹³ The enacted 2024–2026 budget included a pilot teacher loan forgiveness program, funded at $4.8 million in its first year and $10 million in its second.¹⁴

What’s Pending in Frankfort

Several recent proposals to raise teacher pay have stalled. Governor Andy Beshear’s 2024–2026 executive budget called for an 11 percent raise for all school personnel, backed by $545 million annually, which his administration described as the first state-funded pay increase since fiscal year 2008. The governor’s office projected the raise would move Kentucky from 40th to 25th in average salary and from 44th to 24th in starting pay.¹⁵ The General Assembly did not adopt it. The enacted budget included no dedicated funding for teacher raises and instead provided modest increases to the SEEK funding formula, leaving salary decisions to local boards.⁶

Standalone bills have fared no better. House Bill 694 in the 2024 session proposed one-time payments of $2,000 to teachers and administrators and $1,000 to classified staff; it was referred to committee in February 2024 and never received a vote.¹⁶ House Bill 271 in the 2025 session sought a 5 percent salary increase for all school district employees and died in the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee.¹⁷ House Bill 19 in the 2026 session would mandate annual raises pegged to the Consumer Price Index. As of mid-2026, it remained in the same committee with no recorded action since its January 2026 referral.¹⁸

1
National Education Association. Educator Pay and Student Spending: How Does Your State Rank
2
National Education Association. 2024-2025 Teacher Salary Benchmark Report
3
Kentucky Department of Education. Minimum Salary Schedules, Effective July 1, 2025
4
Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. Kentucky Teacher Salary Comparison: Reviewing Pay Over Time, Across States, and Across Districts
5
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Public School Employee Staffing Shortages, Research Report No. 486
6
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. Preview of the 2026-2028 Kentucky State Budget
7
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. State Report on Kentucky Teacher Shortage
8
Kentucky Lantern. House Budget Falls Short of Providing Competitive Teacher Salaries, Say Kentucky School Administrators
9
Office for Education Policy, University of Arkansas. Hey, What About Arkansas Teacher Pay
10
Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System. Part-Time or Substitute Teaching
11
Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System. TRS 4 Member Information
12
Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System. TRS History
13
Kentucky Personnel Cabinet. Health Insurance
14
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. Budget Agreement Maintains Modest Spending for Education and Other Needs
15
Office of State Budget Director, Commonwealth of Kentucky. 2024-2026 Executive Budget, Education Summary
16
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. HB 694, 2024 Regular Session
17
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. HB 271, 2025 Regular Session
18
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. HB 19, 2026 Regular Session