Teacher Salary and Turnover in the USA and China: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Teacher turnover influences students’ performance in a negative way. Among all reasons, unsatisfying salary could be a main factor contributing to teachers leaving their profession. Yet, little is known about how contextual moderators affect this relationship and most past research focuses on the US context. This meta-analysis seeks to compare the relationship between turnover and salary in the US and China while differentiating turnover intention from real turnover rate. Applying a set of screening criteria, we identified 21 studies (five in China and 16 in the US), which produced a statistically significant relationship (OR = 0.99, p < .05). This result means that salary had a negative relationship with turnover - where more salary is related with a lower chance of teacher turnover. As for moderator analysis, we found a significant difference between urban schools as compared to rural and combined school types (p = 0.01). There was no statistically significant difference in the relationship between salary and turnover in studies conducted in the US and China, or studies in public and private schools or studies in middle and primary schools. Our findings contribute to the field of research around teacher turnover by reinforcing the significant role that salary continues to play in teachers’ decisions to stay in the classroom or leave. Additionally, this study expands the geographical scope of the research on teacher turnover and salary beyond the United States to include studies of Chinese teachers as well.