Salaries are up just over 5% for teachers in school districts and public charters across the state compared to the 2024-25 school year.

The state minimum salary requirement is $50,252 for the 2025-26 school year, "a significant increase for some districts that were paying as low as $41,500," according to a Jan. 5 Idaho Education News article.

The Lake Pend Oreille School District, which employes roughly 220 teachers according to its website, ranked sixth in average salary for traditional school districts with an average of $74,430. That compares to an average of $63,979 in the Boundary County School District and $61,445 in the West Bonner County School District.

The Coeur d'Alene School District, which employs 903 teachers, is one of the largest districts in the state. According to data from the Idaho Department of Education analyzed by Idaho Education News, Coeur d'Alene's average teacher salary is $67,467, ranking third-highest among Idaho's 10 largest districts and charter schools.

"While we are proud that our district has prioritized our budget to rank third in Idaho for average teacher pay, we must look at that ranking in context," Superintendent Shon Hocker said Friday. "Being a leader in Idaho is a step in the right direction, but it is not the finish line.”

Coeur d'Alene collaboratively works to provide annual salary increases for its educators, said Stefany Bales, the district's executive director of communications and community relations.

"Our teachers, principals and support staff make it possible for us to fulfill our promise of being a place for every student, and we prioritize compensating them as well as we can in a high-cost community like Coeur d’Alene," Bales said.

Teacher wages have been on the rise for the past several years, except in the 2020-21 school year, when the full-time average base salary plus extra pay dipped to $51,817 from $52,875 the previous school year. The most significant increase occurred in the 2023-24 school year, when their average salary rose $5,151 to $61,516. It resulted in a 9.1% increase over the previous school year's average of $56,365.

Average salaries are up to $67,126 in the Post Falls School District, which employs 295 teachers.

"We gave everyone a minimum 2%, but many received a much greater percentage due to the state-mandated minimums and a new certified salary schedule," Post Falls Superintendent Dena Naccarato said.

In the Lakeland Joint School District, average salaries are up to $66,139. Superintendent Rusty Taylor said the district increased teacher wages by an average of 3.37%. Lakeland employs about 282 certificated staff members, including counselors, nurses and others.

"At this point, we would like to do step increases for certified staff, and all other remaining staff," Taylor said. "We are obviously required to meet the state-mandated minimums based on the career ladder for certified staff."

Factors considered when calculating average teacher pay include the number of educators, seniority and where they are on the career ladder.