District Personnel Salary Survey Turns 40!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the TASB District Personnel Salary Survey. As districts submit the 2026 surveys, we are looking back at trends and notable insights.

Participation

In 1986, 734 districts participated, and data gathered shows teachers received an average pay increase of 7.4 percent, and 38 percent of teachers received an additional $1,500 career ladder bonus.

Since 2005, HR Services has received 12,753 unique survey responses. The survey reached its record highest participation in 2007 with 751 responses, while the average number of responses in the past five years has settled to 568 per year. The lowest participation was in 2021 when 509 responses were received, likely due to districts continuing to deal with impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the past five years, the highest number of responses have come from ESC Region 10, with Regions 7, 11, 13, and 20 filling out the top five.

Compensation Trends

With years of survey data behind us, we can track compensation trends across the state of Texas through time. Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen the following average annual pay increases:

• Teachers: 3.6 percent (includes the Teacher Retention Allotment (TRA) in 2025)
• Administrative professionals: 2.5 percent
• Clerical paraprofessionals: 2.7 percent
• Auxiliary: 2.6 percent

The year 0 hiring median in 2017 was $40,074. Last year, the reported year 0 hiring median for the 2025-2026 school year was $50,000.

Responding to Member Needs

New positions are routinely added to the District Personnel Salary Survey based on requests from HR Services member districts.

Last year, we began surveying for “Communications Specialist” and “Clinic Aide.” In recent years, we have also introduced “Director of Safety and Security,” “Security Guard (Armed),” and “MS Child Nutrition Manager.”

If you have suggestions for additional benchmarks you would like to see in the future, please submit them in the suggestion box at the end of this year’s survey.

2026

Survey invitation emails for the 2026-2027 District Personnel Salary Survey were sent to contacts on Sept. 1, 2026. Please complete the survey by Oct. 13. There will not be a deadline extension this year.

Visit the HR Services Survey Resources webpage for the sample survey, an updated FAQ, the survey assistance file, and a new survey demo and support video.

More Information

For deeper insight into how your participation in TASB Salary Surveys can help your districts and others throughout the state of Texas, check out From Data to Decisions: How Salary Survey Participation Benefits Texas Schools.

Data from prior surveys can be accessed by HR Services members in TASB HRDataSource™.

Any questions about HR Services’ surveys can be directed to salary.survey@tasb.org.