How much do CMS employees make? Check out our 2025 public schools salary update
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools employs more than 18,000 people, ranging from teachers and principals to assistants, custodians and secretaries.
Each year, the Charlotte Observer updates its public pay database with the salaries for all CMS employees.
Search the database, updated in early 2025, below.
Some takeaways, according to a Charlotte Observer analysis:
▪ Sixteen teachers, who also work with the school’s ROTC, make more than $100,000.
▪ Eighteen principals earned more than $175,000.
▪ Nine chief officers — chief of staff, chief operations officer, etc. — make more than $200,000.
In addition to educators, the school district employs hundreds of cafeteria workers and tutors, carpenters, warehouse workers, electricians and roofers.
This year, CMS leaders said they wanted to increase hourly pay for all staff members to at least $20. Increasing the pay of the district’s lowest paid employees, such as bus drivers and cafeteria workers, would cost an estimated $25.6 million, the Observer reported.
