EDUCATOR WORKFORCE

Maine’s educators – from early childhood through adulthood – are “the workforce behind the workforce” in many different ways. Every day, teachers cultivate our next generation of citizens, workers, and community leaders. They not only build lifelong knowledge, skills, and relationships, but teachers also provide a critical source of care so that young people’s caregivers can participate in the labor force.

This section provides information on Maine educators specifically: who they are, how many they are, and what they bring to the field. The emphasis here is on public pre-K to grade 12 educators, as they represent the largest educator workforce in the state. Maine also has about 7,500 early childhood educators working with children between birth and five years old, whose contributions are just as vital and yet frequently overlooked. While requirements for educator positions vary depending on the sector and the role, all educators in Maine play a critical role in cultivating our communities.

Maine teacher salaries are the lowest in New England.

Maine teacher salaries are not competitive with neighboring states. The average annual teacher salary in Maine ranks 30th in the nation.

*Source: National Education Association, Educator Pay Data 2025 (data based on 2023-24 school year).

Starting teacher salaries are not competitive with other occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree.

Further, nearly half of Maine teachers hold master’s degrees or higher, yet the average teacher salary statewide is only $66,000.

Maine teachers are more highly educated than the state’s population as a whole.

Teachers must have a bachelor’s degree to be professionally certified; nearly half of the workforce also has an advanced degree (master’s or higher). The chart below shows 13% of Maine’s general population with an M.A. or higher, compared with 45% of the Teacher population.

Source: Maine Department of Education Data Warehouse and data request.

The average Maine PreK-Grade 12 educator is 44 years old.

Across the nation, the average teacher age has been increasing over recent decades, though Maine is consistently at the top of the rankings of states with the oldest teachers. Maine also has one of the lowest percentages of teachers in their 20s, indicating that the state is does not have a robust pipeline of educators coming into the field. Scroll over the bars below to see the percent of teachers in each age band.

Maine educators have an average of 14 years of experience.

Nearly a third of Maine educators have been in the teaching workforce for over 20 years. While experience is helpful, this also signifies that Maine is facing a wave of future retirements without a robust pipeline of teachers to replace those retiring. Nationally, data shows that increasing numbers of early career teachers (70%) consider leaving the profession within the first five years.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2024 State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates

STRATEGIES TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN EDUCATORS

This is not an all-encompassing list. The thrust of these strategies relates to traditional public school educators, though many of these strategies can also be adapted for early educators.

• Increase minimum salaries. Maine made progress in recent years by increasing the state minimum salary for teachers to $40,000, but this has not kept up with inflation, nor is this a competitive salary for the level of education that teachers have and the work that is expected of them.
• Create alternative pathways to certification. Registered teacher apprenticeships will expand the pipeline into the profession. Currently, it takes a burdensome amount of time and money for people to enter the teaching field in Maine, especially career changers.
• Expand reciprocity with other states. Maine should make it easier for educators certified in other states to teach in Maine.
• Update educator preparation programs. Teachers are clear that traditional training is not keeping up with student needs in the classroom or the latest evidence-based strategies for teaching math and literacy.
• Let teachers lead from the classroom. Allow for more professional growth pathways within the profession that don’t remove excellent teachers from their classroom teaching roles.