HB333: HB333 Education; require that the state minimum salary schedule shall be updated each year

Georgia sets a statewide minimum salary schedule for teachers and other certified school employees under O.C.G.A. § 20-2-212. Currently that schedule only changes when the General Assembly decides to update it. This bill would require the State Board of Education to adopt rules by July 1, 2025 that automatically update the minimum salary schedule every year by December 1. Each yearly update would have to reflect inflation or deflation from the prior calendar year. The State Board could use the Consumer Price Index from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or another similar federal index, as long as the board finds it accurately reflects inflation's effect on certified school personnel. The bill also keeps an existing rule that local school systems must pay new classroom teachers their first paycheck at the end of the first month of the school year. The changes would take effect July 1, 2025.

• Requires the State Board of Education to adopt rules by July 1, 2025 for updating the statewide minimum teacher salary schedule.
• Mandates that the minimum salary schedule be updated every year by December 1, instead of remaining fixed.
• Requires each annual update to reflect inflation or deflation from the prior calendar year.
• Allows the State Board to use the federal Consumer Price Index or a similar federal index to calculate the inflation adjustment.
• Keeps the existing requirement that local school districts pay new classroom teachers their first paycheck at the end of the first month of service.

Public school teachers and other certified professional personnel whose pay is set by the state minimum salary schedule, local school districts that administer payroll, and the State Board of Education, which must write new rules to carry out the annual updates.

If enacted, Georgia teachers' minimum pay would rise or fall automatically each year based on inflation instead of waiting for lawmakers to vote on a raise, which could mean more predictable, if not necessarily larger, changes to take-home pay statewide.

• Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 20-2-212(d) to require the State Board of Education to develop implementing rules by July 1, 2025.
• New paragraph (1) requires the minimum salary schedule to be updated every year by December 1.
• New paragraph (2) requires each update to reflect the prior year's inflation or deflation, measured using the Consumer Price Index or a comparable federal index chosen by the State Board.
• Subsection (c) keeps the requirement that local school systems pay beginning classroom teachers their first paycheck at the end of the first month of the school year.
• Section 2 sets the effective date as July 1, 2025.
• Section 3 repeals conflicting laws.

1. 2025-02-11House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-02-10House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-02-06House Hopper (House)

• Tangie Herring (D, HD-145)Primary sponsor
• Phil Olaleye (D, HD-059)
• Lisa Campbell (D, HD-035)
• David Wilkerson (D, HD-038)
• Karen Bennett (D, HD-094)
• Spencer Frye (D, HD-122)

• teacher pay
• education funding
• state salary schedule
• inflation adjustments
• school personnel