17% of teachers work a second job

A large share of U.S. public school teachers say they’re unhappy with their pay—and that may help explain why so many pick up a second job, not just during summer break but throughout the school year.

In 2020–21, the most recent year of available data, 16% of full-time public elementary and secondary school teachers worked a nonschool job over the summer, while 17% did so during the academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

That’s far higher than the national average: only 4.6% of all U.S. workers ages 20 and older held multiple jobs in 2020 and 2021, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted nearly every part of teaching in 2020–21, but it didn’t significantly alter second-job trends. Back in 2017–18, 16% of teachers reported outside work in the summer and 18% during the school year—nearly identical to pandemic-era levels. In fact, the share of teachers juggling second jobs has remained steady, and consistently much higher than the national average, since at least 2007–08, when NCES first began separately tracking summer employment.

Not all teachers are equally likely to work extra jobs. In 2020–21, younger educators, those with fewer years of experience, and teachers without a bachelor’s degree were the most likely to seek outside summer employment. Unsurprisingly, these groups also earned lower base salaries on average than their older, more experienced, and more highly educated peers.