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Role hub · Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education

Elementary School Teacher: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of elementary school teachers earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$63,970
Hourly
Annual pay only (BLS)
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Elementary School Teachers teach academic and social skills to students at the elementary school level. The median pay is $63,970 a year (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a bachelor's degree (78% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$63,970
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
1,388,390
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 4 of 5
considerable preparation
Most common education
Bachelor's Degree
78% of workers

Data Government data groups this job as Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education (O*NET-SOC 25-2021.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.

Key facts

Elementary School Teachers at a glance

  • Workers in the BLS occupation “Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education” in the United States earned a median annual wage of $63,970 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

  • In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for workers in the BLS occupation “Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education” in the United States.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS projects employment of workers in the BLS occupation “Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education” in the United States to decline 0.4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 87,500 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS estimates that less than 0.5% of elementary school teachers, except special education in the United States had the ability to telework in 2025, a preliminary estimate of whether the job allows it, not a count of remote jobs.

    Source: BLS Occupational Requirements Survey, 2025 preliminary

Explore the role

Every page for Elementary School Teachers

SalaryElementary School Teacher salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →How to becomeElementary School Teacher how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →ResumeElementary School Teacher resume

Keywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.

Open →Interview questionsElementary School Teacher interview questions

Questions with what they test, plus practice mode.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

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The work

What elementary school teachers do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Instruct students individually and in groups, using teaching methods such as lectures, discussions, and demonstrations.
  2. Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among the students.
  3. Guide and counsel students with adjustment or academic problems or with special academic interests.
  4. Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs and interests.
  5. Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
  6. Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
  7. Read books to entire classes or small groups.
  8. Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
Job requirements

What the job requires

Data BLS figures for elementary school teachers, except special education (SOC 25-2021), 2025 preliminary BLS Occupational Requirements Survey.

Telework available
less than 0.5%
of workers had the ability to telework
Workday sitting
37.6%
mean share of the day required to sit
Most common strength level
Light
92.1% of workers
Can pause work
13.1%
of workers could take short, unscheduled breaks
Self-paced workload
15.5%
of workers set their own workload
Employer-changed schedules
27.5%
of workers had schedules changed by the employer week to week

On TryHired lists: Jobs that don't require experience.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Requirements Survey. Estimates are preliminary; ranges are shown as published.

Where this career works

Industries that employ it

Data Share of all elementary school teacher jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix).

  1. Educational services; state, local, and private98.2% of all jobs in this occupation · -0.3% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $72,700
  2. Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations1.2% of all jobs in this occupation · +1.4% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $50,030
  3. Social assistance0.1% of all jobs in this occupation · +0.4% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $53,960
  4. Nursing and residential care facilities0.0% of all jobs in this occupation · +3.2% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $53,800
  5. Government, excluding state and local education and hospitals0.0% of all jobs in this occupation · +3.3% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $85,010

Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.

Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

InstructingcoreLearning StrategiescoreSpeakingcoreSocial PerceptivenessActive ListeningCritical ThinkingMonitoringCoordinationService Orientation

Knowledge areas: English Language, Education and Training, Mathematics, Customer and Personal Service, Psychology, Therapy and Counseling.

Tools and technology

Software elementary school teachers use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Children's educational softwareComputer based training software
  • ClassDojoDesktop communications software
  • ClassTagDesktop communications software
  • Common CurriculumComputer based training software
  • EasyCBMComputer based training software
  • EdpuzzleMulti-media educational software
  • FlipgridVideo creation and editing software
  • Google DriveCloud-based data access and sharing software
  • Graphics softwareGraphics or photo imaging software
  • JamBoardGraphics or photo imaging software
  • Kahoot!Multi-media educational software
  • NearpodMulti-media educational software

Also called: Elementary Teacher, Art Teacher, Classroom Teacher, Elementary Classroom Teacher, Math Teacher (Mathematics Teacher).

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.