politics

Ashley loves her day job teaching math, reading and science to fifth graders in Washington state. But like many other teachers, Ashley relies on a side hustle or two to get by.

When she’s not in the classroom, Ashley works as a spray tanner at night during the school year and at her family’s Christmas tree farm over winter break. Her husband, Jake, also a public school teacher, has a side hustle of his own as a painter.

“I absolutely love what I do, but it comes with big challenges financially,” Ashley, who preferred not to share her last name, told CNN in a phone interview. “My husband and I are doing whatever we can, whenever we can, to support our lifestyle.”

They’re hardly alone.

The majority of public school teachers (71%) hold at least one side job, according to a survey released Monday by Gallup in partnership with the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Walton Family Foundation.

Teacher schedules, with seasonal breaks and summers off, provide more time for side hustles compared to some other professions. Yet the Gallup survey found that 85% of those who hold side jobs do that work during the school year, not just over breaks.

Teaching during the day, driving Ubers at night The side work often stretches beyond teaching-related jobs such as tutoring.

Nearly a third of teachers hold a second job that is unrelated to education, including driving Ubers, delivering food, and working as bartenders and waiters.

While teachers have historically been underpaid, the issue has been exacerbated by today’s cost-of-living problems. The rising cost of groceries, insurance and utilities have hurt lower- and middle-income workers across industries.

Ashley said she works a second job to not feel like she’s living paycheck to paycheck on her $62,000-a-year salary. The money from her work as a spray tanner goes towards travel and a down payment on a house.

“We’re trying to save up to buy a house, but in this economy, that’s very difficult on two teacher salaries,” Ashley said.

According to the Gallup survey, just 28% of teachers say they’re living comfortably on their household income. By contrast, 52% say they are only getting by and 21% say they face financial challenges.

Teachers who say they are struggling are twice as likely to hold a non-teaching related side gig compared to those living comparably (46% vs. 22%), according to Gallup.

“It’s shocking to see how many teachers work in in second jobs outside of education during the school year,” former US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, now president and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center, told CNN. “Our teachers feel so financially strained that they have to seek additional employment. This is at odds with what we say we value.”

When it comes to pay, teachers have been left in the dust by other professions. According to the National Education Association, the average teacher salary in the 2024-2025 school year was just over $72,000.

Public school teachers make about 27% less than other people who have similar levels of education in other jobs, according to 2024 data from the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Economic Policy Institute. That’s the highest on records that go back to the 1970s. It’s even worse for men, where the teacher pay gap is 36%.

Teachers have perks, too Teachers have perks that many other workers may not. For instance, while most corporations did away with pension plans years ago, public school teachers can look forward to guaranteed monthly pension checks for life after they retire. Teachers also often have superior healthcare plans compared to other industries.

And perhaps the strongest structural perk of being a teacher is the safety net of tenure, whereas private-sector workers can get fired with little to no notice.

Still, state and local budget cuts have eroded some of those perks and raised questions about the long-term viability of those pension plans.

The decline of perks, on top of teachers’ financial struggles, may be contributing to burnout at public schools.

More than half (52%) of teachers who find it hard to get by financially say they feel burned out at work very often or always, according to the Gallup survey.

“That teacher who is burned out and not fully focused on your kids or my grandkids … (is) likely to wash out and leave the profession,” Spellings said, “and we, as taxpayers and users of the public education system, are ill-served.”

‘It’s corrosive’ Spellings noted that the United States has a teacher shortage, especially in fields like special education, driven in part by an aging teacher population and high attrition. But the financial issues have caused some teachers to question whether they can make it work in the long run.

“I don’t know if I will retire as a teacher,” Ashley said. “I keep fighting to come back because I’m passionate about it. But it’s hard to stay in a system where you don’t feel valued.”

The general perception of low pay and not feeling valued also sends a “corrosive” signal to anyone considering a career in teaching, Spellings said.

Spellings said she is eager to find solutions for the financial struggles of teachers, including career ladders that can help dedicated educators stay in the classroom instead of leaving for higher-paying administrative roles. This includes finding ways to increase wages and resources for educators.

“We can put our money where our mouths are. We can raise pay for teachers,” she said.