Brothers and sisters,

For years this union has asked a simple question: where does your pay rank against the rest of the country? We now have the federal answer, and it is worse than most of us guessed.

GFT compared all 242 occupations the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports for Guam against the same jobs in every state and territory, using the May 2025 wage data. The full report is out now.

• Guam ranks 53rd out of 54. Only Puerto Rico pays its workers less.
• The typical Guam worker earns $36,650. The typical American earns $50,980. That is $14,330 a year, or 28 percent.
• In 152 of the 235 jobs we could rank, Guam pays the lowest or second lowest wage in the United States.
• Education workers are paid less on Guam than in any state or territory. Dead last of 54.
• In computer and mathematical work, the national median is more than double what Guam pays.

For classroom teachers, our own payroll records say the same thing. Three out of every four earn less than the average American teacher, and that includes our most senior members, the ones holding master’s degrees.

Do not let anyone tell you this is because Guam is cheap. These are raw wages with no cost of living adjustment. Nobody who buys groceries here believes it costs less to live on this island.

And do not let anyone tell you it is just the island economy. There is exactly one job where Guam pays more than any state in the country: the postal clerk. Washington sets that wage. Where pay is set federally, our people are first in the nation. Where it is set here, we are last.

The 2022 educator pay plan was real and it mattered. But the data behind it was gathered before the inflation that followed, and nothing has moved since. In February we measured the teacher shortfall at $10,565 a year. Against this year’s national average, the same salary is $15,087 behind. Standing still is not standing still.

We still cannot bargain over pay. Only the Legislature and the Governor can change the pay plan. It takes a bill and it takes a signature.

What you can do. Read the report. Then contact your senators and the Governor’s office and tell them you have seen the federal numbers.

In solidarity,

Sanjay Sharma, PhD
Vice-President, Guam Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 1581

Pay Comparison

If you would like to see a comparison between an occupation on Guam and the United States, drop a comment below.