Pay Teachers Act

The Pay Teachers Act would dramatically raise and stabilize public school teacher salaries while expanding federal support for schools and the teaching workforce. It sets a federal framework to ensure teachers receive a livable, career-long, competitive wage (starting base around $60,000 in coming years, with regular increases), and it extends similar living-wage standards to paraprofessionals and education support staff (at least $45,000 per year or $30/hour). The bill pairs these salary goals with expanded federal investments in public schools (via mandatory funding for Title I, rural education, impact aid, and the Bureau of Indian Education) and a redesigned federal role in guiding states to grow and diversify their teaching pipelines. It also creates new state-level obligations—such as a State Teacher Pay Plan Addendum and a Teacher Salary Improvement pathway—to help states plan, monitor, and report progress toward these salary targets, while safeguarding equity and preventing negative effects like larger class sizes or reduced planning time. In short, the bill seeks to attract, retain, and fairly compensate teachers and other school staff by guaranteeing higher salaries, tying those guarantees to federal funding and state plans, and strengthening the overall educator preparation and pipeline to support long-term educational quality and equity.