Teacher Salary in Idaho 2026,
$61,600 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Idaho figure is $61,600 a year per BLS OEWS May 2025, on SOC 25-2021, Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education — an annual-basis series for which BLS publishes no hourly wage. The band runs $45,940 at the 10th percentile to $80,710 at the 90th, and the median is 3.7% below the national figure of $63,970.

Lewiston at $64,600, then Coeur d'Alene $63,550, Boise City $61,230, Idaho Falls $61,080 and Twin Falls $60,890. The two northern metros are the only ones above the state median. Boise City sitting slightly below it is the notable point — the largest and fastest-growing district market in Idaho does not pay the most, partly because it employs a younger workforce on lower Career Ladder rungs.

Through the State Department of Education under the State Board of Education: a bachelor's degree, an approved educator preparation programme and the required content and pedagogy assessments, renewed on a cycle with professional development. Idaho also offers alternative authorisation routes for candidates entering from other careers. Certification, unusually, is administered by the same body that sets the Career Ladder salary framework, so the credential and the pay schedule are two halves of one system.

It is the statutory framework Idaho uses to allocate state funding for teacher salaries, distributing money to districts along defined rungs tied to years of service and demonstrated performance. Its effect is visible in the wage data: the gap between the $48,900 twenty-fifth percentile and the $61,600 median is a step rather than a gradient, because teachers advance between scheduled rungs rather than negotiating individually. It also compresses differences between districts, which is why the Idaho metro spread is only about 6%.

It does, because there is no lower rate at the bottom of the scale. A first-year teacher near the $45,940 tenth percentile faces the same 5.8% rate as a senior teacher near the $80,710 ninetieth. The sharpest comparison is with neighbouring Washington, which levies no income tax and pays teachers more — a genuine pull on the Coeur d'Alene and Lewiston districts, which publish $63,550 and $64,600 and sit closest to that border.

Because the pay is scheduled. Idaho's Career Ladder distributes state salary funding along defined rungs based on years of service and demonstrated performance, so teachers do not spread smoothly across a range — they sit at scheduled points and move between them. The $45,940 tenth and $48,900 twenty-fifth percentiles capture the early rungs; the $61,600 median and $65,960 seventy-fifth capture the professional rungs where most of the workforce sits. The empty space between them is a design feature of the system, not a data artefact.

Two things. First, the occupation is SOC 25-2021, elementary teachers excluding special education — a standard anchor for teacher pay, but not a figure that covers secondary, special-education or preschool teachers, who are reported separately and paid differently. Second, teacher salaries are contracted on a school year rather than a calendar year; the annualised figure does not describe a twelve-month working pattern, and it excludes supplemental pay for coaching, summer work and extra assignments that many Idaho teachers rely on.

Credentials and years, because the Career Ladder is built on them, plus supplemental assignments that sit outside the schedule. A master's degree, National Board certification and long service are the recognised routes up the rungs toward the $80,710 top decile. District choice matters less here than in states with locally bargained schedules — the whole metro spread from Lewiston $64,600 to Twin Falls $60,890 is about 6% — but supplemental duties such as coaching, extracurricular leadership and summer programmes are real income that the base schedule does not show.