Head Start Pay Scale: How Head Start Teachers Are Paid and the New Pay Parity Rule

Head Start is funded by the federal government and operated locally.

The Head Start Program Performance Standards (45 CFR 1302) are the federal rules the Office of Head Start administers, and they set grantee requirements — credential minimums, and, under the 2024 rule, salary and benefit floors (agencies with 200 or fewer funded slots are exempt from the specific wage and benefit rules, covered below).

The salary schedule itself is not in the standards: the 2024 pay provisions set floors and targets, not a schedule, so steps, raises and credential differentials are the grantee's decisions — which is why the offer letter matters more than any national chart.

That structure has a practical consequence: two Head Start teachers in the same county can sit on different payrolls, because grantee agencies set their own schedules.

Because BLS publishes no wage statistic for the title, the number to weigh is the one in your offer letter and the schedule behind it.

For the closest published data — with its proxy framing named — see our Head Start teacher salary page.

New to the role?

The Head Start teacher career guide covers the standards, duties and qualification tracks first.

The credential rules give the scale its rungs.

Center-based Head Start preschool teachers need at least an associate degree, and at least 50% of Head Start preschool teachers nationwide must hold a bachelor's degree in early childhood education or a related field.

Those are the credential floors in the federal standards — the associate degree for each center-based preschool teacher, the 50 percent as a nationwide share.

How each rung converts to dollars is the grantee's call.

The standards set the qualification a role needs; the 2024 pay provisions are three — district-comparable salaries, a basic-needs floor and age-neutral pay — and none of the three sets a dollar amount for a credential.

Credentials re-enter pay through the parity comparison, which is adjusted for qualifications, experience and hours, so those are the factors the rule's math turns on.

Until any of that takes effect, a degree is worth what your grantee's schedule says it is.

So when you compare offers, ask two questions: where does my credential place me on your schedule today, and what does the schedule pay at the next credential up?

In Head Start the credential can be the raise — but whether it is, and by how much, is written in the grantee's schedule, not the federal rule.

The 2024 Head Start Program Performance Standards set the pay floor.

Section 45 CFR 1302.90(e) requires programs, by August 1, 2031, to pay each Head Start teacher an annual salary at least comparable to what public-school preschool teachers in the local school district earn, adjusted for qualifications, experience and hours — and the rule frames that as progress toward parity with kindergarten-through-third-grade teachers.

Agencies with 200 or fewer funded slots are exempt from the specific wage and benefit rules, so the floor does not reach every grantee.

For scale, preschool teachers employed by local-government schools earned a median of $61,300 in May 2025, and those in elementary and secondary schools overall earned $56,750 — May 2025 BLS medians for preschool teachers (SOC 25-2011), the proxy occupation behind this page's comparisons.

The 2024 rule sets two more targets for the same date: a salary floor generally sufficient to cover basic needs — the rule names food, housing, utilities, medical costs, transportation and taxes — and pay that does not differ by the age of the children served, which would put infant-and-toddler and preschool teachers on the same footing.

None of it is settled.

On May 12, 2026, ACF published a proposed rule, "Restoring Flexibility To Support Head Start Program Access," that would remove all the wage and benefit requirements in 45 CFR 1302.90(e) and (f); comments closed June 11, 2026.

A second proposal, published August 7, 2026 ("Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs"), would rescind and replace the entire Performance Standards; comments were due October 6, 2026, and ACF says it will address the wage-and-benefit removal in a separate final rule.

As of October 2026, the current standards — parity deadline included — remain in effect until a final rule publishes, and a removal would take effect 60 days after that.

Because the deadline sits in 2031, the wage-parity requirement has never yet been in force.

Treat it as a requirement in the current rule, not a guarantee: if you are searching for a Head Start pay raise, this rule is where one would come from, and whether it arrives depends on how the rulemaking ends.

Head Start is the federal parity mechanism.

The state-funded side of the parity push — salary schedules attached to state pre-K programs and local pay funds — is followed in our pay parity guide.

The benefits floor comes before the pay one.

Under the 2024 rule, by August 1, 2028 programs must offer each full-time staff member — defined as working 30 or more hours per week — health coverage or access to it, paid leave, and access to low-cost behavioral health services.

Agencies with 200 or fewer funded slots are exempt, so the floor does not reach every grantee.

Those requirements live in the wage-and-benefit provisions ACF has proposed to delete, so the same caution applies: current rule, contested future.

Until the rulemaking ends, the benefits you are offered are the grantee's own — which is why the posting and the interview are where you confirm the package, not the federal rulebook.

Beyond the 2028 requirements, our research verified no Head Start-specific figures for retirement plans or tuition benefits.

Confirm the full package — coverage, leave, retirement, any education support — with the grantee you are applying to.

Pay calendars differ by setting.

BLS describes many public-school preschool teachers as working the traditional 10-month school year with a 2-month summer break, while preschool teachers in daycare settings may work year-round with longer hours.

Head Start programs are run by grantees, so which pattern applies to you depends on the grantee's program calendar — ask directly whether it runs a school-year or full-year schedule.

Two mechanics matter for the paycheck.

First, an annual salary can be spread across the whole year or paid only over the program year — same salary, different cash flow — so ask how the grantee divides it.

Second, hours decide your status: the 2024 benefits rule counts full-time as 30 or more hours per week, and the parity comparison adjusts for hours, so a school-year salary and a full-year salary are not compared dollar-for-dollar under the rule.

Start with the honest limit: BLS does not publish wages for Head Start as a separate industry or program, so no federal wage figure is a Head Start pay figure — any number quoted under the title is a proxy for a broader group.

The useful proxies are industry medians for preschool teachers (SOC 25-2011), all from the May 2025 BLS release.

Preschool teachers in individual and family services — an industry category that includes many Head Start grantees — earned a median of $45,550 in May 2025, versus $36,850 in child day care services.

That is not a Head Start-versus-center gap: depending on the grantee, a Head Start program is classified under either industry, and an individual grantee can pay above or below its industry median.

The public-school comparison is starker, and it is the one the parity rule aims at.

Preschool teachers employed by local-government schools earned a $61,300 median; those in private elementary and secondary schools, $44,290; those across elementary and secondary schools overall, $56,750 — against $36,850 in child care services.

Same occupation, same release, different payrolls.

Credentials cut the other way.

Head Start sets a federal floor — at least an associate degree for center-based preschool teachers, with at least 50% nationwide holding a bachelor's — while a private center's qualification minimums come from its state's child care licensing rules — your state's child care licensing agency is the authority to confirm them with.

For the state-by-state proxy figures, see our Head Start teacher salary page.

Career information, not licensing or legal advice. Head Start pay and benefits rules come from the Head Start Program Performance Standards (45 CFR 1302), administered by the Office of Head Start; your salary schedule comes from your grantee. Confirm current requirements with the Office of Head Start or the grantee before you accept an offer or set one.