Teacher compensation is driven largely by teacher longevity. While it's true that wages in many fields generally increase with experience, what differs in teaching is the degree to which pay is linked to seniority. And compared to other professions, teaching has more heavily back-loaded pay -- meaning a disproportionate share of earnings comes late in a career. This analysis explores the extent to which teacher salary policies favor the most senior teachers, examines the consequences of this tradition, and discusses how districts might distribute the same total salary dollars via fixed-dollar increments to all teachers (instead of using fixed percentages). This would raise salaries in teachers' earlier years, without changing their lifetime earnings. Doing so could help school systems strengthen their teaching forces in several ways, without costing the district more, creating a fairer arrangement that may help school systems in the long run. This report examines one slice of the salary pie that school districts potentially have the power to adjust regardless of how many new dollars are available to raise wages.