That’s despite a recent state budget that drastically boosted early career teacher pay and provided more modest pay increases for more experienced teachers. Other states also contribute to teacher salaries, and North Carolina’s neighboring states pay more to first-year teachers or more to later-career teachers, or both. Wake teachers are earning several thousand dollars less per year than they would if they worked in a different southeastern community with a similar cost of living. Before the state pay increases, a Wake teacher earned about $48,000 to start. Wake starting teacher pay would be about $55,000, and 30-year teacher pay would be about $73,000.