---
title: "Substitute Teacher, Short-Term"
description: "Teach students on a short-term basis as a temporary replacement for a regular classroom teacher, typically using the regular teacher's lesson plan."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/substitute-teacher-short-term"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Substitute Teacher, Short-Term

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-3031 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-3031.00

Teach students on a short-term basis as a temporary replacement for a regular classroom teacher, typically using the regular teacher's lesson plan.

Also advertised as: Building Sub (Building Substitute); Building Sub Teacher (Building Substitute Teacher); Child Development Sub Teacher (Child Development Substitute Teacher); ESL Sub (English as a Second Language Substitute); HS Sub Teacher (High School Substitute Teacher); Pre-School Sub Teacher (Pre-School Substitute Teacher); Short-Term Sub Teacher (Short-Term Substitute Teacher); Sub (Substitute).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $41,670 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $20.03/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,560 to $65,790, with the middle half between $34,170 and $54,890
- **Total US employment:** 524,770
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 65,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 40/100 — 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 524,770 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,560 |
| 25th | $34,170 |
| 50th (median) | $41,670 |
| 75th | $54,890 |
| 90th | $65,790 |
| Mean (average) | $46,420 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | $66,920 | $65,378 | 1,420 |
| CA | $60,300 | $54,462 | 115,660 |
| HI | $58,530 | $53,233 | 3,990 |
| OR | $58,280 | $56,385 | 8,090 |
| WA | $55,740 | $52,087 | 14,820 |
| MN | $50,390 | $51,095 | 8,660 |
| DC | $49,790 | $45,304 | 750 |
| WV | $49,020 | $54,773 | 4,840 |
| MD | $46,470 | $44,274 | 7,610 |
| RI | $45,590 | $44,574 | 1,910 |
| PA | $44,870 | $45,987 | 22,360 |
| WI | $43,950 | $46,708 | 8,420 |
| NJ | $43,780 | $40,237 | 17,100 |
| NY | $43,490 | $40,298 | 36,090 |
| ND | $42,570 | $47,854 | 420 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 556,100 in the 2025–2035 base year to 567,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 10,900 jobs, or +2.0%. Slower than average: 2.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 65,000 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 | 39.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 34.6% |
| Some College Courses | 10.4% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 10.1% |
| Master's Degree | 4.6% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 0.5% |

## What the work involves

- Answer students' questions.
- Take class attendance and maintain attendance records.
- Enforce school and class rules to maintain order in the classroom.
- Operate equipment such as computers or audio-visual aids to supplement presentations.
- Distribute or collect tests or homework assignments.
- Distribute teaching materials, such as textbooks, workbooks, papers, and pencils, to students.
- Follow lesson plans designed by absent teachers.
- Teach social skills to students, such as communication, conflict resolution, and etiquette.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 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 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.5 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), Conventional (C), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 6.73 |
| C — Conventional | 3.65 |
| A — Artistic | 3.43 |
| I — Investigative | 2.52 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.45 |
| R — Realistic | 2.19 |

### 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 | 73.5 |
| ESFP | 72.9 |
| ESFJ | 72.1 |
| ENFP | 66.2 |
| ISFJ | 62.2 |

Best-fitting types: ENFJ, ESFP, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [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
- [Special Education Teacher, Secondary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school) — median $74,260
- [Kindergarten Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/kindergarten-teacher) — median $62,680
- [Elementary School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/elementary-school-teacher) — median $63,970
- [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
- [Teaching Assistant, Special Education](https://nuecareer.com/careers/teaching-assistant-special-education) — median $37,010
- [Special Education Teacher, Elementary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-elementary-school) — median $67,170
- [Tutor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tutor) — median $43,350
- [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/
- **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/substitute-teacher-short-term