👑 LADY BUDGETDOWN FOLLOWED ANOTHER RABBIT HOLE...
A reader noticed something interesting in Lady Budgetdown's recent Birmingham Public Schools 10-year comparison.
Birmingham's average teacher salary increased from $75,846 in 2014-15 to $92,607 in 2024-25, a nominal increase of 22.1%. But after inflation, its purchasing power actually declined 9.67%.
The reader asked a very reasonable question:
Is Birmingham unusual, or has this happened elsewhere?
Well, dear readers, that receipt went straight to the top of the ledger. 🪶
So Lady Budgetdown checked every one of Oakland County's 28 traditional public school districts.
No selected districts.
No charter schools.
No handpicked examples.
All 28.
And the result was striking:
📜 26 OF 28
In 26 of Oakland County's 28 traditional public school districts, the district-reported average teacher salary did not keep pace with inflation from 2014-15 through 2024-25.
The median district experienced an inflation-adjusted decline of approximately 16.43%.
Only Oak Park (+2.99%) and Pontiac (+16.23%) finished above their 2014-15 purchasing-power level.
Hazel Park came remarkably close to breaking even: −0.01%.
Here is the entire ledger:
District 2014-15 2024-25 Nominal Change Inflation-Adjusted Change
Walled Lake $80,058 $73,023 −8.8% −32.52%
Clarenceville $69,452 $64,272 −7.5% −31.54%
Farmington $83,903 $81,461 −2.9% −28.17%
Avondale $60,913 $59,244 −2.7% −28.04%
Bloomfield Hills $70,472 $69,437 −1.5% −27.10%
Clawson $56,239 $57,018 +1.4% −24.99%
Royal Oak $66,506 $69,368 +4.3% −22.83%
Lake Orion $66,574 $69,881 +5.0% −22.34%
Clarkston $65,405 $68,728 +5.1% −22.26%
Holly $62,638 $65,983 +5.3% −22.07%
Waterford $59,175 $65,095 +10.0% −18.62%
Troy $73,622 $81,669 +10.9% −17.93%
West Bloomfield $67,254 $75,354 +12.0% −17.11%
Novi $68,586 $76,905 +12.1% −17.04%
Lamphere $68,495 $77,939 +13.8% −15.82%
Berkley $58,607 $67,104 +14.5% −15.29%
Huron Valley $56,857 $68,117 +19.8% −11.37%
South Lyon $61,831 $74,964 +21.2% −10.30%
Southfield $73,831 $89,623 +21.4% −10.19%
Birmingham $75,846 $92,607 +22.1% −9.67%
Rochester $71,196 $87,011 +22.2% −9.58%
Oxford $58,942 $72,295 +22.7% −9.26%
Brandon $53,521 $67,300 +25.7% −6.97%
Madison $49,530 $63,144 +27.5% −5.68%
Ferndale $57,018 $75,202 +31.9% −2.42%
Hazel Park $56,745 $76,693 +35.2% −0.01%
Oak Park $58,098 $80,880 +39.2% +2.99%
Pontiac $46,382 $72,867 +57.1% +16.23%
🧾 A very important note about what these numbers mean
These figures are district-wide average teacher salaries reported through the Michigan Department of Education.
They do not mean that an individual teacher who remained employed from 2014-15 through 2024-25 personally lost the percentage shown above.
A district's average can change because of retirements, new hires, years of experience, education levels, turnover and other changes in the composition of its teaching workforce.
So Lady Budgetdown is not saying:
"Teachers received a 16% pay cut."
The finding is much more precise:
The district-reported average teacher salary failed to keep pace with inflation in 26 of Oakland County's 28 traditional public school districts over this 10-year period.
🪶 About the inflation calculation
Because school fiscal years end June 30, Lady Budgetdown compared CPI-U at the end of each fiscal-year period:
June 2015 CPI-U: 238.638
June 2025 CPI-U: 322.561
That equals cumulative inflation of approximately 35.17%.
There is no 2026 inflation included in these calculations.
📚 Sources & Methodology
Teacher salary: Michigan Department of Education, Bulletin 1014 - Average Teacher Salary, individual district data, 2014-15 and 2024-25.
Inflation: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U, U.S. City Average, All Items, not seasonally adjusted, June 2015 → June 2025.
District population: All 28 traditional local public school districts served by Oakland Schools. Charter/public school academies were excluded.
And one final note.
This rabbit hole began because a reader looked at the Birmingham numbers and asked whether the same thing was happening elsewhere. That is exactly what Lady Budgetdown wants this page to do.
The numbers don't have to tell us what to think. Sometimes they simply tell us what question to ask next. And this time, the answer was sitting across an entire county.
Receipts aren't very useful if we only keep the convenient ones. 👑🪶
With receipts and respect.
Data compiled and analyzed by Lady Budgetdown using publicly available records.