CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Charleston County School District added $124.8 million to its payroll in 2025, according to a new analysis that says the salary increases are boosting the local economy.
“We started both this school year and the prior school year with zero teacher vacancies,” said Daniel Pretince, CFO of Charleston County School District.
The school district says the salary increase comes from looking at the current market in Charleston County.
Budget strategy enables pay raises
“We were able to do that for a variety of reasons. Our budget strategy included balancing the budget with a sustainable use of some of our fund balance that we had on hand from prior positive variances, a small increase to property taxes as well as just more precise forecasting of our revenues and expenditures,” Pretince said.
The pay increased by more than $10,000, making the base pay around $60,000.
The Charleston Regional Development Alliance says their model shows the pay increase creates $350 million going out to the local economy, but a professor from the College of Charleston says that may not be the case.
“It gets a little dicey when all you’re doing is moving money from one pocket in Charleston County to another pocket in Charleston County and calling that, yes, that is spending. If it’s more spending that would have happened otherwise, that’s a different story. But those are how the models work,” said Frank Hefner, professor of economics at College of Charleston.
Teacher retention and recruitment improve
The salary increases have helped teacher retention and increased applications to the district.
“Our job fairs have seen a significant increase in participation. That was notable this past year. It was something that we picked up on very early in the registration process when that was being advertised,” Pretince said.
Real estate leads economic impact
The development agency report highlighted $34 million in real estate investment as one industry benefiting from the salary increases.
“That trickles down most substantially into real estate, which we expected as well, because people have more resources to be able to provide for themselves and for their families in terms of housing in particular,” Pretince said.
Other sectors mentioned were $24 million in telecommunications, $21 million in healthcare, $12 million in manufacturing, $11 million in banking and financial services, $9 million in retail, and $6.5 million in restaurants.
The school district says this is a trickle-down effect with employees spending their money in industries around the area.
Hefner says a better analysis would look at how the pay increase affects teachers.
“A better measure would be what is the educational outcome of this, and that is better students, better teacher morale, a better school system,” Hefner said.
The district says they have seen positive impacts in those areas.
“For retention, it’s also been great for being able to focus on teacher quality and teacher attendance to ensure that teachers are in front of students as much as possible in order to deliver quality instruction,” Pretince said.
District officials say they will be monitoring the economy to keep their pay competitive with the market.
