See what CMS teachers, principals, administrators make in our salary database
More than 18,000 people work for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, according to a Charlotte Observer analysis of the district’s payroll. Each year, the Observer updates its public pay database with the salaries for all CMS employees.
The school district is the second largest in the state, and the 16th biggest in the nation. It serves nearly 142,000 students across 186 schools, according to the district’s website.
The district would not specify who is full-time because it said that detail isn’t open to public inspection per state law. The district also provided only hourly wages for some employees and annual pay for others, hence the two separate pay columns in our database.
CMS salary database range
Charlotte-Mecklenburg teachers are leaving their jobs at a higher rate than the state average, resulting in a nearly 15% attrition rate during the 2024-25 school year, the Observer reported Monday. A district spokesperson told The Observer that teachers mainly say they leave because of retirement and career changes. If they’re leaving for a career change, they usually cite inadequate compensation.
Annual teacher salaries range from less than $50,000 a year to the top-paid ROTC instructors that make nearly $120,000 a year. The median non-ROTC teacher salary is about $63,000.
Principal pay ranges from about $106,000 to about $190,000.
The superintendent, general counsel and deputy superintendent are the top-paid positions in the district, making about $318,000, $290,000 and $241,000 respectively.
This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 5:05 AM.
