Teacher Salary in Hawaii 2026,
$71,410 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $71,410 a year per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 11.6% above the national median of $63,970. The middle half falls between $59,530 and $76,740 and the full band runs $55,210 to $95,120. BLS publishes no hourly wage for this occupation, which is reported annually. The wage row covers elementary school teachers except special education rather than all teaching assignments.

Effectively none of them, and that is the point. Urban Honolulu reports $73,080 and Kahului-Wailuku on Maui $71,830, against a statewide figure of $71,410 — about seventeen hundred dollars across the whole table. Because Hawaii runs a single statewide school district with one salary schedule, a teacher on Maui or the Big Island is paid on the same steps as one in Honolulu, which no other state can say.

Through the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, which is separate from the state education department. Complete a state-approved preparation programme and the required assessments to obtain a provisional licence, then progress to standard and advanced licences with service and further study. Because there is a single statewide district, one licence and one application process covers employment anywhere in the state — there are no separate district hiring credentials.

It is the honest question this page has to face. The $71,410 median is 11.6% above the national figure, but Hawaii has the highest cost of living in the United States, driven by housing and by the shipping cost of nearly everything consumed here. The state's documented retention difficulties — particularly among teachers recruited from the mainland — are the practical answer: the premium exists, and it is not proportionate to the cost difference. Local ties and housing arrangements make more difference to whether the salary works than the salary itself does.

Yes, through the statewide salary schedule, which is built on degree level and years of service. Because there is only one schedule in the state, the value of a graduate degree is defined statewide and calculable in advance rather than depending on which district you happen to work in — an unusual advantage. Advanced licensure, national board certification and additional responsibilities are the other routes toward the $76,740 seventy-fifth percentile and the $95,120 ninetieth.

Almost everything about how a teaching career works here. On the mainland, the largest financial decision a teacher makes is usually which district to work in, because separately bargained schedules funded by local property tax can differ by tens of thousands of dollars. In Hawaii that decision does not exist: one contract, one schedule, one employer. The upside is equity — a school in Waianae and one in Kahala pay the same steps — and predictability, since the value of a degree or a year of service is defined statewide. The downside is that there is no district to move to for more money, so the only levers are degree level, service, licensure and additional responsibility.

It annualises a contract of roughly nine or ten months and excludes stipends and extended contracts. It comes from a broad occupation code covering elementary school teachers except special education, so secondary, special education and early childhood teachers sit on related but distinct parts of the schedule. Only two metros are published, which leaves the Big Island and Kauai out of the table entirely — though with a statewide schedule that matters less here than it would anywhere else. And it says nothing about the cost side, which in Hawaii is the dominant variable.

Degree level first, because the statewide schedule is built on it and the value is defined for the whole state rather than varying by district. Years of service second, moving along the same schedule. Advanced licensure and national board certification third. Additional responsibilities — department and grade-level leadership, extended contracts, additional duties — fourth, which along with long service is what the $76,740 seventy-fifth percentile and $95,120 ninetieth describe. Shortage-area licensure in special education, mathematics and science carries real hiring leverage given the state's retention difficulties. Geography contributes essentially nothing.