--- title: "Elementary School Teacher" description: "Teach academic and social skills to students at the elementary school level." canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/elementary-school-teacher" last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z" --- # Elementary School Teacher **Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-2021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-2021.00 Teach academic and social skills to students at the elementary school level. Also advertised as: Art Teacher; Classroom Teacher; Elementary Classroom Teacher; Elementary School Teacher; Elementary Teacher; Math Teacher (Mathematics Teacher); Music Teacher; Primary Teacher. ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $63,970 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $47,960 to $104,340, with the middle half between $57,710 and $81,450 - **Total US employment:** 1,388,390 - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's - **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** -2.0% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034) - **Annual job openings:** 91,000 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** 51/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure ## Pay National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 1,388,390 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $47,960 | | 25th | $57,710 | | 50th (median) | $63,970 | | 75th | $81,450 | | 90th | $104,340 | | Mean (average) | $72,650 | ### Pay by state The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there. | State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | WA | $102,350 | $95,643 | 28,980 | | CA | $99,650 | $90,002 | 155,160 | | DC | $96,580 | $87,879 | 3,750 | | MA | $94,000 | $88,883 | 29,930 | | RI | $90,930 | $88,903 | 3,830 | | NY | $85,760 | $79,466 | 101,410 | | CT | $80,600 | $77,792 | 16,330 | | AK | $79,260 | $77,433 | 3,500 | | NJ | $78,200 | $71,872 | 40,300 | | MD | $77,680 | $74,010 | 29,610 | | OH | $77,370 | $83,396 | 47,870 | | OR | $77,130 | $74,622 | 12,600 | | PA | $77,060 | $78,978 | 48,370 | | MN | $76,350 | $77,418 | 26,640 | | DE | $75,920 | $76,066 | 2,900 | 39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/elementary-school-teacher/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/elementary-school-teacher. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 1,422,700 in the 2024–2034 base year to 1,394,800 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 27,900 jobs, or -2.0%. Declining: -2.0% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 91,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034. ## How to get in - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections). - **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed". - **Related work experience typically required:** None. - **Typical on-the-job training:** None. ### Education people in this job actually hold O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above. | Education level | Share of workers | | --- | --- | | Bachelor's Degree | 78.2% | | Master's Degree | 21.8% | ## What the work involves - Instruct students individually and in groups, using teaching methods such as lectures, discussions, and demonstrations. - Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among the students. - Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs and interests. - Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate. - Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities. - Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health. - Confer with parents or guardians, teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students' behavioral and academic problems. - Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children's progress and to determine priorities for their children and their resource needs. ## Skills and knowledge ### Essential skills - Learning Strategies — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Transferable skills These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site. - Instructing — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Service Orientation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Time Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Persuasion — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Knowledge areas - English Language — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Education and Training — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Mathematics — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Psychology — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Therapy and Counseling — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Abilities - Oral Expression — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speech Recognition — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speech Clarity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ## Who it suits O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Artistic (A), Conventional (C). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | S — Social | 7.00 | | A — Artistic | 3.87 | | C — Conventional | 3.78 | | I — Investigative | 3.35 | | R — Realistic | 2.64 | | E — Enterprising | 2.57 | ### Personality fit These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job. | Type | Fit score (0–100) | | --- | --- | | ESFP | 71.6 | | ENFJ | 70.4 | | ENFP | 68.4 | | ESFJ | 66.2 | | INFJ | 63.5 | Best-fitting types: ESFP, ENFJ, ENFP. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [High School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/high-school-teacher) — median $72,040 - [Middle School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/middle-school-teacher) — median $64,370 - [Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/adult-basic-education-adult-secondary-education-and-english-as-a-second-language-instructor) — median $61,540 - [Kindergarten Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/kindergarten-teacher) — median $62,680 - [Tutor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tutor) — median $43,350 - [Special Education Teacher, Elementary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-elementary-school) — median $67,170 - [Special Education Teacher, Secondary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school) — median $74,260 - [Special Education Teacher, Kindergarten](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-kindergarten) — median $67,170 - [Special Education Teacher, Middle School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-middle-school) — median $66,810 - [Teaching Assistant, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special Education](https://nuecareer.com/careers/teaching-assistant-preschool-elementary-middle-and-secondary-school) — median $37,010 ## Sources - **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html - **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/ - **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/ - **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ - **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area --- This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/elementary-school-teacher