---
title: "Kindergarten Teacher"
description: "Teach academic and social skills to kindergarten students."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/kindergarten-teacher"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Kindergarten Teacher

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-2012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-2012.00

Teach academic and social skills to kindergarten students.

Also advertised as: Bilingual Kindergarten Teacher; Classroom Teacher; Educator; Instructor; Kinder Teacher; Kindergarten Classroom Teacher; Teacher; Title One Kindergarten Teacher.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $62,680 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $46,990 to $101,830, with the middle half between $52,180 and $79,910
- **Total US employment:** 108,870
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -0.3% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 11,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 48/100 — 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 108,870 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $46,990 |
| 25th | $52,180 |
| 50th (median) | $62,680 |
| 75th | $79,910 |
| 90th | $101,830 |
| Mean (average) | $69,370 |

### 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 | $99,960 | $93,409 | 5,270 |
| CT | $90,030 | $86,893 | 1,420 |
| RI | $85,470 | $83,565 | 360 |
| MA | $84,100 | $79,522 | 1,980 |
| CA | $82,550 | $74,557 | 7,430 |
| DC | $81,500 | $74,158 | 180 |
| NY | $77,630 | $71,932 | 6,950 |
| MD | $75,910 | $72,323 | 1,560 |
| MN | $75,500 | $76,556 | 2,840 |
| NM | $74,380 | $80,662 | 950 |
| NJ | $74,210 | $68,205 | 5,370 |
| DE | $74,030 | $74,172 | 70 |
| OH | $72,570 | $78,222 | 3,290 |
| OR | $68,580 | $66,350 | 1,330 |
| GA | $65,680 | $68,208 | 4,530 |

36 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 51 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/kindergarten-teacher/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/kindergarten-teacher.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 111,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 110,900 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 300 jobs, or -0.3%. Declining: -0.3% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 11,900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## 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 | 75.7% |
| Master's Degree | 13.8% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 10.5% |

## What the work involves

- Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.
- Instruct students individually and in groups, adapting teaching methods to meet students' varying needs and interests.
- Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, and social skills.
- Demonstrate activities to children.
- Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
- Observe and evaluate children's performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
- Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate, and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play.
- Prepare and implement remedial programs for students requiring extra help.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — 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 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 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.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Education and Training — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 4.0 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 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sociology and Anthropology — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 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 | 3.99 |
| C — Conventional | 3.80 |
| I — Investigative | 3.11 |
| R — Realistic | 2.68 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.48 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ENFJ | 72.0 |
| ESFP | 70.7 |
| ESFJ | 68.2 |
| ENFP | 67.0 |
| INFJ | 65.1 |

Best-fitting types: ENFJ, ESFP, ESFJ, ENFP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Elementary School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/elementary-school-teacher) — median $63,970
- [Preschool Teacher, Except Special Education](https://nuecareer.com/careers/preschool-teacher) — median $38,140
- [Special Education Teacher, Kindergarten](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-kindergarten) — median $67,170
- [Middle School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/middle-school-teacher) — median $64,370
- [Special Education Teacher, Elementary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-elementary-school) — median $67,170
- [High School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/high-school-teacher) — median $72,040
- [Special Education Teacher, Secondary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school) — median $74,260
- [Special Education Teacher, Middle School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-middle-school) — median $66,810
- [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
- [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 31.0 Database, August 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, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 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 31.0 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/kindergarten-teacher