Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-3-306 (2026)

• (a)
  • (1) The commissioner, as approved by the state board of education, shall annually formulate a table of training and experience factors and a state salary schedule to be effective for each school year, which shall be applicable to all licensed personnel in every LEA, and which shall include an established base salary per school year consisting of a term of two hundred (200) days for beginning licensed personnel with a bachelor's degree and zero (0) years of experience. Licensed personnel having more training and experience shall receive more than the established base per school year. Certified personnel having less training and experience shall receive less than the established base per school year. The salary schedule shall not be applicable to substitute personnel. In the alternative, an LEA may submit to the commissioner its own proposed salary schedule, subject to collective bargaining where applicable. Implementation of such a salary schedule shall be subject to approval by the commissioner and the state board. In no case shall a salary schedule adopted pursuant to this subdivision (a)(1) result in the reduction of the salary of a teacher employed by the LEA at the time of the adoption of the salary schedule. Any additional expenditure incurred as a result of any such salary schedule shall be subject to appropriation by the governing body empowered to appropriate the funds.
  • (2) An LEA may adopt a salary schedule that is identical in either structure or designated salary levels or both to the salary schedule the LEA had in place during the 2012-2013 school year, with such schedule containing steps for each year of service up to and including twenty (20) years and for the attainment of advanced degrees at the level of masters, masters plus forty-five (45) hours of graduate credit, specialist in education and doctor of education or doctor of philosophy. In no case shall a salary schedule adopted pursuant to this subdivision (a)(1)(B) result in the reduction of the salary of a teacher employed by the LEA at the time of the adoption of the salary schedule.
  • (3) The state salary schedule for teachers formulated by the commissioner pursuant to subdivision (a)(1) must establish a base salary that is no less than:
    • (A) Forty-two thousand dollars ($42,000) for the 2023-2024 school year;
    • (B) Forty-four thousand five hundred dollars ($44,500) for the 2024-2025 school year;
    • (C) Forty-seven thousand dollars ($47,000) for the 2025-2026 school year; and
    • (D) Fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the 2026-2027 school year.

• (b)
  • (1) Salaries shall be payable in at least ten (10) monthly installments during any school year.
  • (2) [Deleted by 2022 amendment.]
  • (3) The salary for part-time personnel shall be proportionately less than that provided for full-time personnel.
  • (4) This section does not prohibit an LEA from supplementing salaries and wages with local funds when such supplementary funds are in addition to the LEA's local contribution.
  • (5) An LEA shall not decrease the level of local funding budgeted for salaries and wages from the prior year, except in the case of decreased enrollment. An LEA shall not use increases in state funding to offset local expenditures for salaries and wages.

• (c) A board may, with the approval of the commissioner, make such readjustment in the salary of licensed personnel as may be necessary to place the salary in fair relation to the salaries of other licensed personnel in the same LEA with comparable tenure, responsibility, training and experience; except that the affected licensed personnel shall be entitled to a hearing before the board. In computing the salaries required to be maintained by this subsection (c), only the part of the salaries paid under the authority of any LEA need be maintained. No LEA shall be required to supply any decrease in funds formerly available to supplement salaries from other than local sources.

• (d) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, any board may increase the salaries of its employees at any time during the school year, upon the basis of a new or amended contract, if in so doing it does not exceed its budget as adopted or amended.

• (e) Each LEA shall establish a local salary schedule for all licensed personnel in the LEA, and the schedule shall include, as a minimum, the same salary level or levels based upon college preparation as established by the state board in the state salary schedule. For fiscal year 2004-2005, the schedule shall include, as a minimum, the schedule recommended by the commissioner for salary equalization purposes under subdivision (a)(2).

• (f) The LEA's training and experience factor shall be calculated by the SEA as follows: by using the table of training and experience factors adopted by the state board, the SEA will classify all licensed personnel employed by the LEA on December 1, or the first full teaching day thereafter, according to training and experience as provided in the rules and regulations and compute the average training and experience factor for such personnel.

• (g)
  • (1) Establishment of programs and cost differentials shall be as follows:
    • (A) Regular academic:

      Kindergarten (K) through grade three (3) ....................1.20

      Grades four (4) through six (6) .................... 1.00

      Grades seven (7) and eight (8) .................... 1.10

      Grade nine (9) .................... 1.20

      Grades ten (10) through twelve (12) .................... 1.30

    • (B) Career and technical education:

      Agriculture .................... 2.62

      Consumer and homemaking, health occupations .................... 2.10

      Trade and industrial .................... 2.48

      Related trade and industrial .................... 1.84

      Office and distributive education .................... 2.04

    • (C) Special education:

      Identified and served handicapped .................... 1.07

  • (2) Identified and served students with a disability shall be included in the program attendance surveys in the appropriate regular academic and career and technical education programs as provided in the rules and regulations. The special education cost differential is supplemental to the regular academic and career and technical education programs and is based on the preceding year's identified and served students with a disability.
  • (3) This table of programs and cost differentials shall apply to educational programs as of the opening of schools for the 1977-1978 school year. At its quarterly meeting in February 1978, and annually thereafter, the state board, as approved by the commissioner, shall establish both the education programs and the cost differentials of the programs applicable to the following school year, which may vary from the table in this subsection (g).

• (h) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section to the contrary, an LEA shall develop, adopt and implement a differentiated pay plan under guidelines and rules established by the state board of education to aid in staffing hard to staff subject areas and schools and in hiring and retaining highly qualified teachers. The plan shall be reviewed and evaluated annually to consider any change in circumstances regarding the hiring and retention of highly qualified teachers in the LEA's schools and subjects taught or any necessary revision or restructuring of the plan. No plan or revised plan shall be implemented prior to approval of the plan by the department of education. Each LEA shall implement a differentiated pay plan prior to the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year.

Amended by 2023 Tenn. Acts, ch. 437, s 1, eff. 7/1/2023.

Amended by 2022 Tenn. Acts, ch. 966, Secs.s 9, s 10, s 11 eff. 7/1/2023.

Amended by 2022 Tenn. Acts, ch. 966, s 8, eff. 7/1/2023.

Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 504, s 1, eff. 7/1/2021.

Amended by 2019 Tenn. Acts, ch. 153, s 1, eff. 4/18/2019.

Amended by 2016 Tenn. Acts, ch. 1020, Secs.s 2, s 3 eff. 4/28/2016.

Amended by 2015 Tenn. Acts, ch. 55, s 4, eff. 4/6/2015.

Amended by 2014 Tenn. Acts, ch. 742, s 1, eff. 4/22/2014.

Acts 1977, ch. 289, § 5; 1978, ch. 705, § 1; 1978, ch. 809, § 1; T.C.A., § 49-605; Acts 1984 (1st Ex. Sess.), ch. 6, § 12; 1984 (1st Ex. Sess.), ch. 7, § 81; 1984, ch. 829, § 33; 1985, ch. 96, § 1; 1985, ch. 464, § 2; 1985, ch. 465, § 2; 1986, ch. 629, § 1; 1986, ch. 777, § 1; 1986, ch. 803, § 1; 1987, ch. 284, § 1; 1988, ch. 761, §§ 1, 2; 1989, ch. 105, § 1; 1989, ch. 199, § 4; 1992, ch. 535, § 84; 2001, ch. 284, § 2; 2001, ch. 306, § 1; 2003 , ch. 355, § 59; 2004, ch. 670, §§ 6 - 8; 2007 , ch. 376, § 6; 2010 (1st Ex. Sess.), ch. 2, § 12; 2011 , ch. 47, § 33; 2011 , ch. 378, § 10.