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Pay Landscape: Salary Benchmarking

Islamic school teacher salaries are highest in the Western region of the United States. Among the U.S. Islamic schools that participated in the survey, the average teacher salary is $39,653. Islamic schools in the West have average salaries nearly $10,000 higher than schools in the East, Midwest, Northeast, and South ($47,589 vs. $37,943 combined average). 

Average salaries of Islamic School teachers vary by grade band. Elementary teachers are paid the least with average salaries of $37,287 while the average middle school teacher salary is $40,112 and the high school teacher salary is, on average, $42,931. Across all grade bands, administrators report that 39% of full-time teachers are paid $20,000-$35,000 annually, 31% are paid between $36,000-$44,000, and 30% are paid $45,000-$65,000 annually. Middle school teachers have the highest proportion of teachers being paid at both the lowest and the highest salary ranges, indicating a lot of variance in middle school teacher pay.

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Introduction

The differences in pay by grade band and region seen among Islamic schools are present in the pay of public and private school teachers overall. Similar to the report of the salaries of teachers in Islamic schools, the average annual wages of public and private school teachers compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 2022 are lowest for elementary school teachers ($64,689) while middle school teachers were at $65,989 and high school teachers had the highest wages ($67,055).ᵃ Across all grades, the average annual wage was $65,910 in 2022. Wages were highest in the Northeast with teachers in those areas making greater than $7,000 more than teachers in the West, greater than $17,000 more than teachers in the Midwest and greater than $22,000 more than teachers in the South.

Some, but not all, of the difference that we see between average teacher wages and the salaries of Islamic school teachers is due to the fact that private school teachers are often paid significantly less than teachers in public schools. While the average annual wage data compiled by NCES does not distinguish between public and private school teachers at the state level, the annual base salary data compiled by NCES highlights the gap in pay between public and private school teachers. For the 2020-21 school year, private school teacher salaries were approximately 75% of public school salaries nationwide, on average.²⁵ This explains some of the gap between the average annual wage and salaries reported for U.S. Islamic schools but does not fully explain the lower levels of teacher pay reported by our survey participants. In 2022, Islamic school teacher salaries were approximately 60% of the annual average wage for public and private school teachers as reported by NCES across the states that had survey participants.

While regional differences in pay seen in Islamic schools are consistent with other public and private schools, there is wide variation in teacher pay in Islamic schools by state. The average teacher salaries reported by the Islamic schools that participated in the survey varied widely by state. While the schools with the highest average wages in 2022 were within the Northeast and West regions, the highest paying Islamic schools spanned the country with the top sevenᵇ in the following states: 1) California (West); 2) Arizona (West); 3) Minnesota (Midwest); 4) Colorado (West); 5) North Carolina (South); 6) Tennessee (South); and 7) Maryland (South). The three lowest paying Islamic schools in the country are in 1) Connecticut (Northeast); 2) Missouri (Midwest); and 3) Iowa (Midwest). Regional differences in teacher pay are much smaller within the U.S. Islamic schools in our study than those seen in the annual wages of teachers nationwide. The Appendix offers a complete list of states ranked by salary at each grade band and overall.

School Financial Resources and Teacher Pay

Islamic schools with more financial resources pay teachers more than $7,500 higher, on average, than schools with fewer financial resources. Schools with higher resources are in a financial position to be able to pay higher salaries. When we compare Islamic schools with high operating budgets to other Islamic schools, we see a difference of nearly $7,600 in average teacher salaries. Schools with high annual revenue pay their teachers an additional $8,700, on average, than other Islamic schools. The tables comparing schools with high financial resources to all other schools are provided below; a comparison of schools with low financial resources to all other schools can be found in the Appendix.

School Characteristics and Teacher Pay

The number of teachers at a school, particularly full-time teachers, is related to teacher pay. Schools with more teachers on staff have higher salaries. Forty-two percent of schools with 30 or more teachers report a high average teacher salary compared to only 22% of schools with 10 or fewer teachers on staff.

Having fewer full-time teachers on staff is associated with lower pay for the full-time teaching staff. For instance, 73% of schools with fewer than two full-time teachers for every part-time teacher on staff pay full-time teachers in the lowest salary range while only 29% of schools with a full-time to part-time ratio of more than 7:1 pay their full-time teachers in the lowest salary range.

While some types of credentialing may be related to teacher pay, the relationship between teacher qualifications and the salary provided by schools is not universal. The percentage of teachers in the schools with some sort of credentials is related to teacher pay as well, particularly in lower grade schools. The difference in pay for elementary school teachers where a higher number of teachers hold some sort of professional credential is more than $4,000. The pay difference is slightly higher for middle school teachers with a larger proportion of credentialed teachers, varying between $4,000 and $7,000 based on the type of credential. However, across all grade levels, there is no consistent qualification among the teaching staff that is associated with higher teacher pay.

In schools where more than 51% of the elementary school teachers have a bachelor’s degree in education, the salary of elementary school teachers is about $4,100 higher than at schools where half or fewer of the elementary school teachers have the credential. Schools where elementary school teachers have any additional credentials pay elementary teachers nearly $4,800 more than schools where none of the elementary school teachers have additional credentials.

In schools where more than 51% of the middle school teachers have a state certification, the salary of middle school teachers is nearly $7,100 higher than at schools where half or fewer of the middle school teachers have state certification. Similar to what we found in elementary school teacher pay, in schools where more than 51% of the middle school teachers have a bachelor’s degree in education, the pay for middle school teachers is nearly $4,300 higher than in schools where half or fewer of these teachers have the credential. Further, schools where more than 51% of middle school teachers have a master’s degree pay teachers about $5,100 more than schools where half or fewer of middle school teachers have this credential.

Benefits Offered

The Islamic schools that participated in the survey provided their staff with an average of five employee benefits during the 2022-23 school year. Thirty-four percent of these schools offer four or fewer benefits and 39% offer six or more benefits to their employees. 

Among the most popular benefits offered to staff are professional development (90%), paid sick leave (88%), and an employee tuition discount (87%). Fewer than half of the participating Islamic schools offer health insurance to their staff (47%) and just over a quarter of schools provide paid family leave (29%).

Schools that pay their teachers more also offer more benefits, on average. In schools where the average teacher salaries sit at the top of the scale ($45,000-$65,000), 69% offer six or more benefits compared to only 22% of schools with low salaries. Conversely, in schools where the average teacher salary is at the bottom of the scale, fewer benefits are offered; 43% of schools with low teacher salaries also provide four or fewer benefits.

When we look specifically at the type of benefits provided and teacher pay, we find positive relationships between level of pay and both health insurance and retirement plans. Sixty-six percent of schools with high teacher salaries offer health insurance compared to only 30% of low salary schools. Similarly, 52% of schools with high teacher salaries offer retirement plans compared to only 11% of low salary schools.

School Financial Resources and Benefits

Islamic schools with more financial resources offer their staff an average of one to two more benefits than schools with fewer financial resources. Similar to the findings in teacher pay, higher resourced schools are often able to offer a more robust benefits package than lower resourced schools. Islamic schools with high operating budgets or high annual revenue offer their staff approximately one additional benefit, on average, compared to the average of five benefits offered by other Islamic schools. The gap in the number of benefits provided widens further when we compare schools with low financial resources to the group of mid-range and high financially resourced schools; these tables are available in the Appendix section titled Additional Benefits Relationships.

High-resourced Islamic schools consistently provide more key employee benefits that allow teachers to take care of themselves, their families, and their futures than schools with fewer financial resources. Schools with more available financial resources more often offer sick leave and retirement plans. Across both measures of schools’ financial resources, there was a positive relationship between the level of resources that the school had available and their offering sick leave and retirement benefits.

The proportion of schools that offer health insurance, retirement plans, and sick leave increase as we move from schools with low to mid-range to high operating budgets. The relationship between employee tuition discounts and operating budget, however, is less straightforward. The highest proportion of schools that offer employee tuition discounts are those with mid-range operating budgets ($500,000 – $1.99 million). Tuition discounts are likely a way that schools can relieve financial burdens for their employees that don’t require additions to their operating expenses.

There is also a positive relationship between schools’ annual revenue and their provision of health insurance, retirement plan, sick leave, and continuing education. The highest proportion of schools offering each of these have high annual revenue. 

School Characteristics and Benefits

Similar to findings about teacher pay, U.S. Islamic schools with a larger number of students and faculty offer more benefits than schools that are smaller in size. A larger proportion of schools with mid-range and high student enrollment offer sick leave, continuing education, health insurance, and retirement plans. Only 15% of schools with low student enrollment provide health insurance and fewer than one in 10 of these schools offer a retirement plan (4%). Schools with higher student enrollment likely have the tuition, fees, and donor support that allow for this investment in employee well-being.

Enrollment and faculty numbers are positively correlated with annual operating budget and annual revenue. This relationship between the size of the school and its financial resources may explain the similarities that we see in these findings to the previous section.  

Schools where elementary teachers have any additional, or alternative, credentials offer slightly more than one additional benefit, on average, compared to the four benefits offered at schools where none of the elementary school teachers have additional credentials.

Recruiting and Retaining Staff is an Issue for Islamic Schools

Like many schools across the country, Islamic schools are experiencing difficulty in hiring and keeping qualified teachers. For the Islamic schools that participated in the survey, recruiting for the core subjects of Math and English/Language Arts is particularly hard. One-quarter of schools saw high teacher turnover (fewer than three-quarters of their staff were retained) between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school year. 

The Relationship Between Salary/Benefits and Recruiting/Retaining Teachers

There are few relationships between teacher compensation and filling position vacancies; where they do exist, the relationship is complicated. The schools providing the highest average salaries for teachers had the most difficult time filling English/Language Arts vacancies. For instance, only 14% of high salary schools said it was easy to fill those positions, while 35% of mid-range salary schools, and 32% of low range salary schools report that filling the positions was easy. Similarly, schools with a lower number of benefits had an easier time filling vacancies. We see 37% of schools with four or fewer benefits say it was easy to fill the position compared to only 10% of schools with six or more benefits reporting that same level of ease. While we know that the complicated relationship exists for recruitment and compensation, we are not able to determine why this relationship exists with our survey data. Ease and difficulty are a matter of perception, and there may be a difference in how schools with varying resources may operationalize the challenges of recruitment.

Compensation matters in retaining Islamic school teachers. Islamic school teachers may come into the field with a zeal for Islamic education that may override an initial requirement for higher compensation, but to keep these teachers long-term, salary and benefits are an important factor. A larger proportion of schools with higher salary levels retained more than three-fourths of the teaching staff between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years; 86% of schools with high levels of teacher pay have high retention rates, while only 59% of schools with low levels of teacher pay have high retention rates. Similarly schools with more available benefits have higher retention; 88% of schools with six or more benefits report high teacher retention while only 69% with four or fewer benefits report high teacher retention. Health insurance, paid sick leave, and continuing education were among the specific benefits associated with teacher retention.

The Relationship Between School Financial Resources and Recruiting/Retaining Teachers

There are few statistically significant relationships between school financial resources and recruiting teachers. The limited relationships mean that even schools with fewer financial resources may be able to still get qualified teachers. Schools with higher financial resources, however, seem to have an easier time retaining teachers. Both the school’s operating budget and their revenue are related to teacher retention rates. Islamic schools with high retention rates have significantly higher operation budgets than schools with low retention rates ($1,622,609 vs. $941,827, respectively). Similarly, schools with high retention rates report a significantly higher annual revenue than schools with low retention rates ($1,521,308 vs. $899,519, respectively).

The Relationship Between School Characteristics and Recruiting/Retaining Teachers

The characteristics of Islamic schools are related to only the recruitment of a few specific vacancies and not at all to retention. The relationship between school characteristics and schools’ recruitment efforts across specific position vacancies is limited to just one of our school staff characteristics, teacher qualifications. The proportion of Islamic schools that report ease in filling their Elementary Lead vacancy is higher in those schools where at least one of the elementary teachers hold some form of additional credentials than in those schools where none of the elementary teachers hold additional credentials.

ᵃ NCES compiled wages are reported only for the 29 states where we had 2023 U.S. Full-Time Islamic School Profile Survey participants.

ᵇ Note that these seven states represent the states in the top quarter of our sample.