Each year, policymakers, educators, and the general public engage in debates around the statewide average teacher pay figure that the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) publishes on its website and reports to the National Education Association. These debates take up the important consideration of whether or not teachers are adequately compensated as compared with teachers in other states as well as compared with workers in other sectors. However, when looking more closely at the data that DPI uses to calculate this statewide average, it can be seen that this figure sends a misleading message about what the average teacher in most North Carolina districts is earning--and how their salaries measure up when compared with similarly educated and experienced professionals working in other sectors. In this report, the Public School Forum presents an analysis of North Carolina teacher salary data, highlighting the following key findings: (1) The average teacher salaries in more than 80 percent of North Carolina's school districts fall below the reported state average salary; (2) Average teacher salary varies widely from district to district due to inequities in local salary supplements that are funded through local property taxes, meaning the lowest paid teachers are typically found in the districts with the highest poverty rates; (3) The calculation used to determine the statewide average teacher salary reported by DPI includes bonuses and other funds that many teachers do not receive; and (4) Teachers in North Carolina are paid less than their similarly educated and experienced peers.