Top Metro Areas for Elementary School Teachers in 2026: New York Ranks #1 as West Coast Cities Lead on Pay

Across the top 10 LaborCove metros for elementary school teachers in 2026, salaries stand well above the national median, and the highest‑ranked locations do not always match the highest‑paying ones. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ leads the metro rankings with the top Geography Score and the largest employment count among all listed metros, while several West Coast markets post higher salaries but rank lower overall. The LaborCove Geography Score helps synthesize salary, employment, and other factors into a single metro ranking, but the data here already show clear contrasts. Some metros combine relatively large employment counts with elevated pay, while others offer smaller employment totals but similarly high salaries. These differences can help teachers weigh whether they prioritize a larger market size, a particular salary level, or alignment with the top composite score when considering a move.

At the national level, elementary school teachers (25-2021) have a median annual salary of $63,970. Total national employment stands at 1,388,390, indicating a large workforce in this occupation across the United States. National employment for elementary school teachers is projected to decline by 2.0%. This is a nationwide projection and is not broken out by state or metro in the data used here. The metro results that follow should therefore be read as a snapshot of relative salary levels, employment counts, and Geography Scores, rather than as forecasts of future hiring patterns in specific locations. LaborCove’s metro rankings draw on this national context but do not assign the national growth rate to any individual metro area. Each metro’s position in the top 10 reflects its own metrics within the LaborCove Geography Score framework for 2026.

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ ranks #1 among metros for elementary school teachers in 2026, with a LaborCove Geography Score of 83.53. This is the highest Geography Score in the top 10 list. The metro’s median annual salary is $96,900, which is higher than the national median of $63,970. New York-Newark-Jersey City also has an employment count of 98,900 elementary school teachers, the largest among all metros in the top 10 and equal to the largest employment market value cited in the geographic data. This employment level is more than twice that of Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, which has 44,790 employed elementary school teachers. Despite having a median salary lower than several West Coast metros in the ranking, New York-Newark-Jersey City’s combination of salary, employment, and other factors captured in the Geography Score places it first overall in the LaborCove results.

Several California and Washington metros in the top 10 report median salaries above $100,000. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has a median salary of $101,860, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA also reports $101,860, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA is at $102,860, and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA comes in at $102,920. Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA has a median salary of $103,390, and Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA has a median salary of $104,650. Despite these high salaries, their LaborCove Geography Scores range from 66.84 for Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim down to 52.15 for Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater. All of these Geography Scores are lower than the 83.53 score for New York-Newark-Jersey City, even though New York’s median salary of $96,900 is below the median salary reported in each of these West Coast metros. Employment counts also differ substantially among these metros. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has 44,790 employed elementary school teachers, while San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont has 17,860 and Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom has 10,480. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara shows 7,810 employed teachers, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue has 14,560, and Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater has an employment count of 950.

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH ranks #6 with a median salary of $98,060, which is higher than the national median of $63,970. The metro has 20,340 employed elementary school teachers, giving it a larger employment count than San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA with 7,810, Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA with 10,480, and Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA with 950. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA appears at #8 with a median salary of $98,520 and an employment count of 18,850. Its salary is higher than the national median and slightly higher than Boston-Cambridge-Newton’s $98,060. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario’s employment count is larger than that of San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA, which has 11,340 employed elementary school teachers. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad holds the #9 position, with a median salary of $97,000 and 11,340 employed teachers. While its salary trails that of Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, and Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, it remains above the national median. All three of these middle-ranked metros carry LaborCove Geography Scores between 52.73 and 56.86.

Across the top 10, LaborCove Geography Scores range from 83.53 in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ down to 52.15 in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA. New York’s score is higher than that of Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA at 66.84 and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA at 60.33, even though both of those metros report higher median salaries than New York. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA, with a median salary of $102,920, has a Geography Score of 57.70, which is below the 60.33 score for San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA despite having a slightly higher salary. Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA, at $103,390, has a Geography Score of 55.10, and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA, at $98,520, has a Geography Score of 53.82. These comparisons illustrate that the LaborCove Geography Score does not strictly follow salary or employment counts. The ranking order reflects a composite of factors, so metros with the highest salaries or the largest employment counts do not necessarily receive the highest overall scores.

LaborCove builds metro rankings for elementary school teachers using authoritative labor‑market data combined with its proprietary LaborCove Geography Score. For each metro, LaborCove incorporates metrics such as median annual salary and employment counts, then calculates a Geography Score that supports the ranking shown here. The national statistics for this occupation provide context but do not drive metro‑level projections. The -2.0% projected employment growth is a national figure and is not assigned to any individual metro area. Because the internal weighting of each factor in the Geography Score is not disclosed, this article describes how metros compare on the visible metrics without attributing the rankings to any single cause. Teachers should view these rankings as one structured input into their decision‑making. Local conditions, personal circumstances, and professional goals remain important alongside the salary levels, employment counts, and LaborCove Geography Scores presented here.