Education, Training, and Library · Holland code SAC

Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education

Teach academic and social skills to kindergarten students.

Also called: Bilingual Kindergarten Teacher, Classroom Teacher, Kinder Teacher, Teacher, Educator, Instructor, Kindergarten Classroom Teacher, Title One Kindergarten Teacher.

O*NET 25-2012.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $62,680; Middle half earn $52,180 to $79,910. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: Bachelor's Degree; 76% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 4 of 5; Considerable preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.
Prepare children for later grades by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
Instruct students individually and in groups, adapting teaching methods to meet students' varying needs and interests.
Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, and social skills.
Demonstrate activities to children.
Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
Guide and counsel students with adjustment or academic problems or special academic interests.
Observe and evaluate children's performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Active Listening4.0 / 5
Speaking4.0 / 5
Learning Strategies4.0 / 5
Monitoring4.0 / 5
Reading Comprehension3.9 / 5
Writing3.3 / 5

Knowledge areas

Education and Training4.7 / 5
English Language4.6 / 5
Psychology4.0 / 5
Mathematics3.9 / 5
Customer and Personal Service3.5 / 5
Sociology and Anthropology3.3 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic28
Investigative35
Artistic50
Social100
Enterprising25
Conventional47

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

secondary school teacher · DE Lehrkraft Sekundarstufe · FR chargé/chargée d'enseignement général du second degré
art teacher secondary school · DE Kunsterzieher Sekundarstufe/Kunsterzieherin Sekundarstufe · FR professeur d’enseignements artistiques/professeure d’enseignements artistiques
primary school teacher · DE Lehrkraft im Primarbereich · FR instituteur d’école primaire/institutrice d’école primaire
early years teacher · DE Lehrkraft für Vorschulerziehung · FR instituteur d’école maternelle/institutrice d’école maternelle
Freinet school teacher · DE Lehrkraft für Freinet-Schulen · FR instituteur en école Freinet/institutrice en école Freinet
Montessori school teacher · DE Lehrkraft für Montessori-Schulen · FR éducateur Montessori/éducatrice Montessori

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Secondary education teaching professionals (2313)504,100 employed
Primary education teaching professionals (2314)374,900 employed
Nursery education teaching professionals (2315)29,700 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Professionals, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€61,714
Germany	€59,529
Ireland	€56,877
Austria	€55,374
Netherlands	€53,595
Sweden	€43,567
France	€41,515
Spain	€35,735
Italy	€33,649
Portugal	€26,072
Poland	€14,380

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +0.36. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (25-2012).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test