While the Commonwealth of Virginia tops CNBC’s list for best states in the country for businesses, it was recently ranked the worst state in terms of teacher pay.

On July 13th, Northam spoke in Norfolk expressing his pride in Virginia being named as the top state for business in the United States. “CNBC confirmed to the world what we have known for a long time, Virginia is the top state for business again this year,” he said, adding that this is due to the inclusive policies that Virginia has implemented in the last few years.

However, another recent report by business.com showed that Virginia is ranked as the worst state in the country for teacher pay. Washington, D.C. is the only place in the country that is worse, according to the report.

The methodology of the report compares the average teacher salary of every state to the average salary of workers in all other occupations in the same state. Pennsylvania tops the list as the best state for teacher pay with teachers earning an average salary of $70,258. That is 30.2% more than other workers in Pennsylvania who earn a salary of $53,950 on average.

The national average in the report shows that teachers across the country earn an average of 13% more than workers in all other occupations. The average teacher salary nationwide is $63,645 while the average salary for other occupations is $56,310.

The average pay for teachers is more than the average pay for other occupations in all but six states and the District of Columbia. The other five states are, in descending order from best to worst, Minnesota, North Dakota, Florida, Arizona, and Colorado. 

Virginia and D.C. end the list with teachers in Virginia earning 10.4% less than other occupations and teachers in the Capital City earning 16.8% less than other occupations.

The average salary for teachers in Virginia is $53,933 while the average salary for other occupations is $60,160. In D.C. teachers earn $79,350 on average compared to the average salary of $95,330 for other occupations. 

Virginia and D.C. stand as significant outliers in the report. Colorado, the third-worst state for teacher pay, has teachers earning just 5.9% less than other workers. The difference in Virginia is nearly twice that amount.

Earlier this year, the Virginia General Assembly approved a budget that provides 5% raises to teachers across the Commonwealth. However, that 5% raise will only bring the statewide average up to $56,629, which is still  6.2% lower than the state average for other occupations. Even with the pay raise, this leaves Virginia as the worst state in the nation for teacher pay.

Virginia’s leaders are proud to tout the Commonwealth’s ranking as first in the nation for business, but it leaves behind an important question. Why are teachers being left behind in the best state for business?