A Research Report from EPIC

Teacher Compensation in Michigan: Recent Trends and Public Opinion, 2026

August 2026

Given the recruitment and retention challenges Michigan has faced in recent years, understanding the state of teacher compensation has real consequences for students across the state. This is EPIC’s third annual report on teacher compensation in Michigan. Our prior reports documented that teacher pay in Michigan has declined relative to other professions, relative to other states, and relative to Michigan’s own past, though there is broad and consistent public support for increasing teacher pay. To extend that work, this report draws on updated and expanded data sources covering teacher compensation trends, cross-state comparisons, and recent analyses of how teachers are paid compared to other college-educated professionals. We find:

• The gap between what teachers in Michigan earn relative to what similarly educated professionals earn has grown.
• Michigan’s teacher compensation standing relative to other states continues to fall.
• Michigan has experienced the largest decline in teacher compensation of any state over the past 30 years.
• There is strong public support for increasing teacher salaries, though Michiganders’ views about how to fund salary increases vary considerably depending on the policy mechanism.