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KDI 경제교육·정보센터

ENG
  • 경제배움
  • Economic

    Information

    and Education

    Center

최신자료
Is Teaching an Engine of Upward Economic Mobility?
RAND
2026.01.12
We measure perceived economic mobility by asking teachers and similar working adults to report whether they feel better off financially than their parents were when they―the respondents―were in high school. We refer to this as being better off financially than their parents.

Forty-six percent of teachers said they are better off financially than their parents, compared with 61 percent of similar working adults.

About half of both groups―46 percent of teachers and 49 percent of similar working adults―were the first in their families to earn a bachelor‘s degree.

Black and Hispanic teachers were more likely than White teachers to say they are better off financially than their parents. Hispanic teachers were the only group more likely than their same-race working adult peers to report being better off financially than their parents.

Teachers with higher base pay were more likely than those with lower pay to feel better off financially than their parents, though the difference was modest.

At equal levels of base pay, similar working adults were more likely than teachers to say they are better off financially than their parents. This pattern suggests that factors beyond salary―such as benefits―shape teachers’ views of their financial status.