The teacher pay penalty, Meta's major settlement, and a footwear flop

The teacher pay penalty has hit a record low, Meta is settling with nearly every state over youth mental health, and Dick’s Sporting Goods is marking down sneakers because shoppers have stopped buying them. On this episode of The Indicator from Planet Money, hosts Waylon Wong, Ricky Mulvey, and Adrian Ma break down three numbers that tell the story.

The teacher pay penalty hits a record low

Waylon’s indicator is 74.8 cents on the dollar. That is the average wage a public school teacher in the U.S. earned in 2025 compared with similar college graduates working in other professions. The figure comes from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, and was published by economist Sylvia Allegretto in a report on what she calls the “teacher pay penalty.”

Allegretto controlled for factors like age and location and found that people in other professions make around 25% more than teachers. The gap has been widening for decades. In 1996, teachers made 6% less than their peers. In 2024, they made 27% less — a record. And while the disparity has always existed since the late 1970s, it has gotten worse because other workers’ wages have kept up with inflation while teachers’ wages have not.