Next week Newark Teachers Union members will vote on a new five-year tentative contract that will  raise salaries for educators by 4.5% each year and bring the starting salary for teachers to $65,000, up from $62,000. According to the New Jersey School Boards Association, that prospective annual salary increase will be 36% higher than the average New Jersey teacher contractual increase of 3.34%.

During negotiations between the Newark Teachers Union (NTU) and the Newark Board of Education, NTU President John Abeigon told TAPinto that Newark educators deserved the highest salary in the country:

“We are demanding the highest, so whatever the highest is in the country, it’s pennies compared to what we are demanding. We want to make Newark a destination district for teachers — young vibrant teachers coming out of college.”

NTU is not quite there: NJEA, the state teachers union, reports that 77 NJ school districts have starting salaries above $60,000 and two, Riverside and Westfield, have starting salaries above $70,000. (NJEA’s worthy goal is starting salaries statewide of $60,000.) Yet Abeigon and union leaders came close, while also winning contractual language that gives teachers some control over curricula and professional development. These items were applauded by Randi Weingarten, president of NTU’s mothership AFT:

“What a difference local control makes, and a superintendent and union that want to make progress for students, as opposed to erecting obstacles or taking pot shots,” Weingarten stated, calling the tentative deal “a transformative document…Teachers will have a genuine voice in classroom and even school operations. No doubt all of this will benefit kids.”

According to a database collated by NEA (the other national teachers union), in 2024 the average NJ teacher had a salary of $81,102, the seventh highest in the nation and higher than the U.S. average of $69,544. The average starting salary nationwide is $44,530.