AASA Releases Superintendent Salary Study

AASA, The School Superintendents Association, released the results of its 2022-2023 Superintendent Salary and Benefits Study.

Participation in the study varies greatly by state; for example, only 5 percent of Texas superintendents are represented while that figure is 16 percent for New York and 42 percent for Arkansas. The data provides a general picture of superintendent compensation nationally but is heavily skewed by states with higher participation. In comparison, the TASB/TASA Superintendent Salary Survey represents 70 percent of districts in Texas this year.

Demographics

Study results indicate superintendents are getting younger and more diverse in both race and gender. In 2022, 31.48 percent of superintendents were between 40 and 50 years of age, an increase of 1.65 percentage points. Only 12.2 percent were more than 60 years of age, a decrease of 7.28 percentage points.

AASA also found an increase in the number of women in the superintendency, approximately a 3.8 percent increase from 2012 to 2022. Women also have fewer years of experience as a superintendent. More than 27 percent of male superintendents have 11 or more years of experience compared to only 15.2 percent of female superintendents.

Over the past 10 years, there has been a slight increase in the racial/ethnic diversity of superintendents. In 2022, 89 percent of superintendents were white (8.88 percent a race other than white). In 2012, 94 percent of superintendents were white (6.05 percent a race other than white).

About half of national respondents had five years or fewer as a superintendent, which matches results we see in Texas. TASB’s superintendent survey focuses on salary and benefits and does not include all of the demographic questions that AASA includes.

Compensation and Benefits

Nationally, the median superintendent’s salary was $156,469 in 2022-2023, about 1 percent less than the previous school year. This is higher than the Texas median of $148,950 as reported by the TASB/TASA Superintendent Salary Survey. In Texas, the median increased 3.5 percent over the prior year. Texas districts tend to be smaller than districts in the AASA survey overall, which will lead to lower median salaries. When comparing by specific enrollment ranges, Texas salaries tend to be higher than those reported in the AASA study.

Although men make up the majority of superintendents nationwide (76 percent), women earned more. For the sixth time in the past 11 years, the median salary of female superintendents was slightly higher.

The AASA study found most superintendents (67.91 percent) received medical/hospital insurance coverage in their employment agreement. In Texas, 89 percent received health insurance benefits from the district.  

More information

AASA members can access the full, member-only version of the 2022-2023 AASA Superintendent Salary and Benefits Study by logging in to the AASA website. Non-members can view the abridged version of the 2022-2023 AASA Superintendent Salary and Benefits Study.

TASB/TASA Superintendent Salary Survey highlights can be found on the HR Services Salary Survey Highlights webpage. HR Services members can run detailed reports in TASB HRDataSource™.