Principal: 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.
10% of principals earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $76,280
- Hourly
- n/a
- Source
- BLS May 2025
25% of principals earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $86,040
- Hourly
- n/a
- Source
- BLS May 2025
Half of principals earn more than this and half earn less.
- Annual
- $105,870
- Hourly
- n/a
- Source
- BLS May 2025
75% of principals earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $134,630
- Hourly
- n/a
- Source
- BLS May 2025
90% of principals earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $167,770
- Hourly
- n/a
- Source
- BLS May 2025
Principals plan, direct, or coordinate the academic, administrative, or auxiliary activities of kindergarten, elementary, or secondary schools. The median pay is $105,870 a year (BLS, May 2025).
- Median pay
- $105,870
- BLS May 2025
- Employed in the U.S.
- 328,330
- BLS May 2025
- Preparation
- Job Zone 5 of 5
- extensive preparation
Data Government data groups this job as Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary (O*NET-SOC 11-9032.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.
Every page for Principals
Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.
Open →ResumePrincipal resumeKeywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.
Open →Interview questionsPrincipal interview questionsQuestions with what they test, plus practice mode.
Open →Career changePrincipal career changeWhere these skills transfer, with skill match and pay change.
Open →Free toolCheck your resumeParsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.
Open →What principals do day to day
Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).
- Counsel and provide guidance to students regarding personal, academic, vocational, or behavioral issues.
- Confer with parents and staff to discuss educational activities, policies, and student behavior or learning problems.
- Observe teaching methods and examine learning materials to evaluate and standardize curricula and teaching techniques and to determine areas for improvement.
- Determine the scope of educational program offerings, and prepare drafts of course schedules and descriptions to estimate staffing and facility requirements.
- Enforce discipline and attendance rules.
- Recruit, hire, train, and evaluate primary and supplemental staff.
- Collaborate with teachers to develop and maintain curriculum standards, develop mission statements, and set performance goals and objectives.
- Set educational standards and goals, and help establish policies and procedures to carry them out.
Ranked by importance to the job
Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.
Knowledge areas: Education and Training, Administration and Management, English Language, Customer and Personal Service, Psychology, Administrative.
Software principals use
Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.
- Apache CassandraData base management system softwareHot technology
- IBM SPSS StatisticsAnalytical or scientific softwareHot technology
- SASAnalytical or scientific softwareHot technology
- The MathWorks MATLABAnalytical or scientific softwareHot technology
- BloomzDesktop communications software
- Common CurriculumComputer based training software
- DesmosAnalytical or scientific software
- EdulasticComputer based training software
- GeogebraAnalytical or scientific software
- Google DriveCloud-based data access and sharing software
- Human resource management software HRMSHuman resources software
- IBM DominoCommunications server software
Also called: School Principal, Athletic Director, Curriculum and Instruction Superintendent, Curriculum Director, Elementary Principal, K-12 Principal (Kindergarten Through Twelfth Grade Principal), MS Principal (Middle School Principal).
Similar careers to explore
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 correlation between the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level, subtract the average across all occupations, and correlate the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 or below means unrelated. Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.
- How a specific employer defines the job.
- Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
- Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
- 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.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).