According to the National Education Association, teachers in Mississippi rank 44th in the nation for average starting salaries and according to the 2021 Rankings and Estimates Report, there has been a 0.08% decrease in the number of teachers in K-12 education in Mississippi.
To combat this, the Mississippi Senate passed a teacher pay raise plan on a 35-0 vote in January of 2022. With that plan, average salaries for teachers across Mississippi would rise by $4,700, with a first-year teacher coming in with a bachelor’s degree starting at $42,000 instead of the previous $37,000. A separate plan was presented in the Mississippi House and now lawmakers from the two chambers will have to work together to come up with a bill together.
Along with an increase in starting salaries, base salaries will increase $500 every year and $1,300 every fifth year depending on if the teacher has some advanced or specialized certification.
But even with the pay raise, the low rate for starting salaries and decreasing number of teachers in the profession could affect upcoming teachers getting their degrees at Mississippi State University.
Andrea Berryhill, a senior elementary education student, said she was aware of the average salary when entering into elementary education but that she does not mind the pay when the benefits of teaching are so great.
“When you love it the way we do, it doesn’t matter how much money you make. Because it’s the smile on your kids’ faces at the end of every day or when they come in to tell you about this amazing thing that happened,” Berryhill said. “To me, it’s about choosing to spend the rest of my life influencing children because that’s what I love to do. It’s me wanting to do it versus the salary that we get.”
Berryhill also discussed how other elementary education students have different opinions on the starting salary while also staying and being teachers in Mississippi.
“There are pros and cons. And a lot of people look more at the cons than the pros of teaching,” Berryhill said. “For example, when we talked in our group chat about where you would think about moving after graduation nobody said Mississippi. They said we love it here but we need to go somewhere else to provide for my family.”
But just as the cons of teaching in Mississippi would outweigh the pros for some students, Berryhill also suggested that for some the pay raise could incentivize potential teachers to stay in the state. With the large pay increase, it could potentially make Mississippi a more competitive state when considering average salaries across the U.S.
Shelby Vaughn, a senior elementary education student, echoed Berryhill’s thoughts regarding how the pay raise could benefit potential teachers but also brought up a point about teachers who have advanced degrees.
“The pay raise is probably enough for most. In my instance, I would like to go back and get a masters and doctorate degree eventually, and of course you’re going to get pay raises when you complete that. But that’s so much more schooling and so much more money that’s coming out of pocket to just get an extra $1,000 or $2,000 a year,” Vaughn said.
Vaughn also said she thinks experienced teachers who have been in the field with the full 25 years of experience should be getting compensated more than the people who have just begun teaching.
“The pay raise sounds like a very significant pay raise for most teachers, but for teachers who have been in the classroom for 30 or more years and don’t plan on retiring, they are already making more than they were when they started,” Vaughn said. “So a little pay raise for them is no big deal. The pay raise is just a little extra spending money but for them it could also be $10-15,000 more because they have dedicated their life to education.”
Kennis Kingery, a senior elementary education student, discussed if the pay raise is enough considering the average starting and regular salaries of other states. She also agreed with Berryhill about future teachers wanting to leave the state due to the pay conditions.
“It took so long for them to do something that is really minimal when it comes to the amount of the raise. They lose new teachers every single year when it comes to the pay raise,” Kingery said. “They’re losing a lot of new teachers who are learning more and more about what kids need in school. And there are just so many other things that they pay attention to like high school for example, sports, rather than the need for teachers to provide for kids.”
Looking to the future, Kingery thought that people are going to want to stay in Mississippi but not long-term considering the regional and national averages.
“I think more people are going to want to stay just for their first two years of teaching to get a grasp on it. But once they have a couple of years under their belt, they’ll probably want to go off somewhere that has more opportunities with better pay,” Kingery said. “Because Mississippi is below the national average and regionally it is almost 10,000 less.”
Kingery pointed out that considering new teachers’ credentials, Mississippi might have to increase teacher pay more to become truly competitive with other states.
“Mississippi State’s education program is one of the harder ones in our region and the people coming out of our department might have a little more under their belt when it comes to the development of kids, not just what they teach them but also how they teach them,” Kingery explained. “I would think things could be a lot more structured than other places but still being in Mississippi doesn’t help with the pay and all.”
Correction: Feb. 17, 2022
An earlier version of this story mentioned the starting teacher pay as $27,851. This figure is for average take home pay, the figure for starting pay is $37,000.

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Mississippi Department of Education Teacher Salary Schedule as of February 2022. The proposed bill would increase salary for teachers.