Public School Pre-K Teacher Pay vs Private Centers

The cleanest way to see the gap is BLS' breakdown of one occupation by employer.

In May 2025, preschool teachers (SOC 25-2011) working in elementary and secondary schools earned a median of $27.29 an hour ($56,750 a year); the same occupation in child care services (NAICS 6244) earned $17.72 an hour ($36,850 a year).

Ownership splits it further: preschool teachers employed by local-government schools earned a $61,300 median, those in private elementary and secondary schools a $44,290 median and those in child care services a $36,850 median.

Same occupation, same data release, three payrolls.

State-by-state medians for the occupation are on our pre-K teacher salary page.

Where the public-school pay rule is written down, it is a salary schedule rather than a rate set hire by hire: North Carolina pays teachers at public-school NC Pre-K sites salaries based on the NC Public School Salary Schedule for certified staff.

How a given district places you on its own schedule — which credentials and which years of experience it credits — is a question for that district, so ask before you accept an offer.

Federal wage law tracks the same divide.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act rules the Department of Labor administers, the teacher exemption covers employees whose primary duty is teaching in an educational establishment, and the rules list teachers of kindergarten or nursery school pupils as exempt teachers — the salary-level test does not apply to them.

But educational establishment is a narrow category: nursery-school programs count as elementary education only in some states, so a typical licensed child care center is not automatically one, and its teachers are generally non-exempt — hourly, and overtime-eligible; how a specific program is treated is a wage-hour question for the DOL's Wage and Hour Division or a state labor agency.

The certification gate is why one job title pays on two different systems.

BLS says preschool teachers typically need at least an associate degree — and that public-school preschool teachers generally need a bachelor's degree in early childhood education or a related field plus an early childhood license.

Broadly, center classrooms fall under state child care licensing rules while district classrooms fall under the state's certification system for teachers.

The license is the boundary between the two payrolls.

On the schedule, certification is money.

Georgia's Pre-K schedule steps lead-teacher pay by certification level and by years of experience, so the certificate you hold sets the column you are paid from.

The kindergarten benchmark shows what the certified track is worth one grade up: kindergarten teachers (SOC 25-2012) earned a median of $62,680 in May 2025 — about $24,500 more than the $38,140 median for preschool teachers across all settings.

Public pre-K sits on the certification side of the line, and the pay data sits with it.

A CDA is not that license: it is a national childcare credential — the one BLS says states most often require of childcare workers who need a national credential — not a state teaching license for public school.

Which tests, certificates and routes lead to a pre-K certificate differs by state; our pre-K teacher certification guide walks the license path.

Community-based pre-K is not one payroll.

At the center end, preschool teachers in child care services earned a median of $36,850 in May 2025 and $17.72 an hour.

Across every setting, the occupation's national median was $38,140 — with a 10th percentile of $28,990 and a 90th percentile of $61,390 — so the local-government school median of $61,300 lands just under the occupation's 90th percentile of $61,390: far above the center median, though not at the very top of the distribution.

The middle tier is publicly funded pre-K delivered in center classrooms, where program funding can bring a pay rule with it.

Georgia Pre-K pays lead teachers from a state salary schedule that reaches private provider classrooms too — the teachers remain employees of the provider, not of the state — and on the FY2027 schedule (July 2026 through June 2027) a lead teacher with an ECE bachelor's starts at $41,717 and a grandfathered associate-degree lead starts at $30,949.86 on the same schedule; the full grid is on our Georgia Pre-K salary scale page.

Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts takes the softer route: guidelines revised July 2026 recommend a starting lead-teacher wage of $45,000 per 180-day school year ($33.33 an hour on 7.5-hour days) and encourage schedules that move toward parity with local districts — a recommendation programs budget against, not a wage mandate.

North Carolina draws this page's line inside its own program: public-school NC Pre-K sites pay on the school salary schedule, while licensed teachers at nonpublic (child care) sites must receive at least the minimum compensation package the program defines.

New York City shows how far the tier can stretch — and its friction.

The city funds pre-K at community-based organizations on DOE contracts, and a March 5, 2024 Comptroller audit found those contracts funding non-union certified CBO pre-K teachers at $61,070 with a bachelor's and $68,652 with a master's — the DOE entry salaries as of 2021 — with no funding for experience steps or later DOE raises.

Where parity rules exist and what they require — including Head Start's 2031 parity rule, which ACF proposed on May 12, 2026 to remove — is the territory of our pre-K pay parity guide.

The calendar is the second difference.

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

That makes the annual figures harder to read than they look: for many school-employed teachers the annual pay covers a school year, while a center teacher's may cover a longer working year.

The same May 2025 release puts the hourly medians at $27.29 in elementary and secondary schools and $17.72 in child care services.

When you compare two offers, set each salary against the months and hours it actually covers, not the annual figure alone.

Benefits ride on the payroll.

Teachers at public-school NC Pre-K sites receive the State Health Plan and retirement benefits that come with the NC Public School Salary Schedule for certified staff.

Outside program rules like North Carolina's, community-based benefits depend on the employer and its funding stream — the job title alone does not carry them.

When you weigh a district offer against a center offer, price health coverage, retirement and paid leave next to the wage, and read the school-year calendar as part of the compensation.

The center-to-district move is a certification project first and a job search second, because the higher-paying side of the gap is gated by licensure.

A workable sequence:

While the license work is under way, the middle tier from the section above is worth checking in your own state: state-funded pre-K classrooms at community sites can pay from published schedules, recommended wages or program minimums — the Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina programs above each take one of those forms — and checking which programs operate near you is the fastest way to see which public-pre-K pay rules reach center classrooms.

For how the role itself shifts by setting — duties, credentials, program types — start from the pre-K teacher career guide.

Career information, not licensing or legal advice. Certification requirements are set by state education agencies, public pre-K pay terms by the agencies that administer each program, and wage-hour rules by the U.S. Department of Labor — confirm the current rules with the agency named before you act on them.