A new report is highlighting the most stressed-out workers in the country, and it’s not firefighters or police officers, but instead our nation’s educators.
According to a national survey from RAND Corporation, teachers work longer hours and earn less pay than comparable workers, reporting feelings of job-related stress or burnout twice as much as other workers.
In total, 59% of teachers reported feeling job-related stress frequently in 2023-24, compared to 33% of comparable working adults. Another stark statistic showed teachers were more likely to have symptoms of depression (19%) compared to their counterparts (12%).
However, burnout appeared to be the starkest difference, as 60% of teachers’ responses indicated burnout, compared to 33% of their counterparts.
Despite what many described as high-stress work situations, the survey also found that teachers were not more likely to leave their jobs compared to their peers in other fields. Overall, just 22% said they wanted to leave their current job, while 24% of adults in other sectors reported the same feelings.
Sy Doan, a RAND policy researcher who was the co-author of the report, shared in a statement that the findings in the report should be a red flag for public school district leaders.
“Educator well-being is an important issue, regardless of its connection to teacher retention,” Doan said. “The natural question is, how many of those people actually leave their job? But the intention to leave your job signifies low job satisfaction, and that affects well-being, morale, and job performance.”
The report highlights that this is not a one-off, as teachers were found to be “more likely than the general population of working adults and more likely than comparable working adults to experience poor well-being on almost every indicator.”
The top three workplace stressors highlighted by respondents were managing student behavior, administrative work, and low salaries.
Teachers reported an average base salary in the United States of $70,000, compared to an average base pay of roughly $88,000 for comparable working adults.
Overall, only 36% of teachers described their pay as being adequate, while 51% of comparable workers did.
The report from RAND was completed in January 2024. It included responses from 1,500 K-12 teachers and 500 comparable employees, described as adults with a bachelor’s degree working at least 35 hours per week in other industries.