Well: >3,500 school districts (28.6%), employing nearly 300,000 teachers still offer a starting salary below $40,000. >They also say "23.2% of school district

Well: >3,500 school districts (28.6%), employing nearly 300,000 teachers still offer a starting salary below $40,000. >They also say "23.2% of school districts pay beginning teachers a salary of at least $50,000. These districts employ nearly 1.3 million (42%) teachers." That is, it's not just long-time versus new teachers, it's district to district: not all districts are the same size and some big districts pay better. Average salary also seems to correspond pretty well to blue-state-ness in the top 10, with the exception of Alaska, for obvious reasons.