Reaching Sixty Without Close Friends Isn't A Social Failure. Researchers Often Find The Opposite.
Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist
California paid public school teachers an average of $101,084 in the 2023-24 school year, the highest in the nation, according to the National Education Association's Rankings of the States 2024 report, released in April 2025. Washington ranked fourth, at $91,720. On paper, a California teacher earns $9,364 a year more than a counterpart in Washington. In practice, that gap mostly disappears once housing costs and state income tax are factored in.
California's price level was 112.6 percent of the national average in 2023, the highest of any state, according to Regional Price Parities published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in December 2024. Within that figure, housing rents were the single largest driver: California's housing-rent price index hit 157.8 that year, nearly 58 percent above the national average. Washington's overall price level was high too, at 108.6, but its housing-rent index of 125.5 was noticeably lower than California's.
Adjusting For Prices Alone Narrows The Gap
Dividing each state's average teacher salary by its BEA Regional Price Parity converts nominal pay into a measure of real purchasing power relative to the national average. On that basis, California's $101,084 salary is worth about $89,754 in national-average dollars, while Washington's $91,720 is worth about $84,456. California still leads by this measure alone, but its nominal advantage of $9,364 shrinks to roughly $5,300, a reduction of more than 40 percent.
State Income Tax Erases What's Left
Washington is one of nine states with no individual income tax at all. California, by contrast, has the highest top marginal state income tax rate in the country, and its state disability insurance tax, once capped, now applies to all wage income as of 2024, per an analysis by tax and accounting firm Virtue CPAs. A single filer earning roughly $100,000 in California faces an effective state income tax rate of about 5.4 percent, according to a bracket analysis by TaxCompare.org, plus the 1.1 percent SDI payroll tax, for a combined bite of roughly 6.5 percent. Applied to California's average teacher salary, that leaves about $94,514 after state taxes, compared with the full $91,720 a Washington teacher keeps, since there is no state tax to subtract.
Washington Pulls Ahead In Real, After-Tax Terms
Combining both adjustments, California's after-tax salary of roughly $94,514 is worth about $83,928 once divided by the state's 112.6 price parity. Washington's untaxed $91,720 is worth about $84,456 once divided by its 108.6 price parity. On this combined basis, Washington's teachers come out about $528 ahead of California's in real purchasing power, despite earning $9,364 less on paper. Massachusetts and Connecticut, the third- and sixth-highest nominal payers, face a similar erosion: both combine income taxes with regional price parities above 103, though the size of the effect there depends on individual filing circumstances this analysis does not extend to.
What This Means For Teachers Weighing A Move
None of this means California pays worse; its average salary is still the highest in the country in the dollars that show up on a job posting, and the calculation above rests on specific assumptions, a single filer taking the standard deduction, no dependents, no local or district-level pay supplements, that will not match every teacher's situation. A teacher with a working spouse, a mortgage, or a district stipend on top of the state average would see a different result, and California's per-pupil spending and union bargaining power, both far above Washington's, shape working conditions in ways a salary comparison alone does not capture.
Still, for a teacher deciding between offers, the number printed in a state ranking is only a starting point. Washington's absence of an income tax and a somewhat lower cost of housing than California's do enough work, together, to close a nearly $10,000 nominal gap and then some. New York and Massachusetts, ranked second and third by nominal pay, carry both a state income tax and a regional price parity above 107, so a similar erosion likely applies to them as well, even without running the same filer-specific math here. A teacher comparing job offers across state lines has more reason to run the after-tax, cost-of-living math for their own filing situation than to trust the raw salary figure alone.
