New Hampshire Teachers Face Pay Gap and Housing Costs, Report Finds

To choose the teaching profession in New Hampshire is to navigate a series of financial trade-offs. The median salary for K-12 teachers in 2024 was $66,123 — enough to comfortably afford a $1,653 monthly rent, according to a 2025 New Hampshire Housing report. The median two-bedroom rent that year? $2,024 per month. And becoming a teacher means earning nearly 34% less than other New Hampshire professionals with similar educational backgrounds, according to estimates by the Economic Policy Institute. Those numbers are at the heart of a new report pointing to a continuing challenge. As New Hampshire public schools face declining enrollment, they are also contending with another long-term concern: recruiting and retaining teachers. And recent state projections suggest the gap is set to persist.