English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
US occupation · SOC 25-1123
Job titles people report: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Creative Writing Professor, English Instructor, English Professor, Humanities Professor, Instructor, Lecturer, Literature Professor, Professor
Pay and outlook
- Median annual wage, May 2025
- $78,760
- Half earn more, half earn less
- Middle half earn
- $60,900 – $103,130
- 25th to 75th percentile
- People employed, May 2025
- 57,720
- Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
- Projected change, 2025–35
- 0%
- Growing slower than all jobs (0% to under 3.5%)
- Openings a year (projected)
- 4,500
- New jobs plus replacing people who leave
- Typical education to enter
- Doctoral or professional degree
- BLS
- All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
- Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
- Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.
What the work involves
Teach courses in English language and literature, including linguistics and comparative literature. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.
Main tasks
- Teach writing or communication classes.
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
- Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
- Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
- Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
- Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as poetry, novel structure, and translation and adaptation.
- Assist students who need extra help with their coursework outside of class.
Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.
Getting in
- Typical education to enter (BLS)
- Doctoral or professional degree
- O*NET Job Zone 5
- Extensive preparation
- Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Interests it suits
The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.
- Social: helping, teaching and caring for people
- Investigative: research, analysis and solving problems with ideas
- Artistic: creating, designing and self-expression
Fields of study that lead here
From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 21 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.
Education
- English/Language Arts Teacher Education
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Education at the Major step.
Where many students take education
- Western Governors UniversitySalt Lake City, UT · 19% of degrees · 155,088 undergraduates
- Grand Canyon UniversityPhoenix, AZ · 11% of degrees · 73,371 undergraduates
- Liberty UniversityLynchburg, VA · 8% of degrees · 50,012 undergraduates
- Illinois State UniversityNormal, IL · 18% of degrees · 19,057 undergraduates
- Arizona State University Campus ImmersionTempe, AZ · 5% of degrees · 64,674 undergraduates
- University of Nevada-Las VegasLas Vegas, NV · 11% of degrees · 24,622 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
English & Literature
- English Language and Literature, General
- Writing, General
- Creative Writing
- Professional, Technical, Business, and Scientific Writing
- Rhetoric and Composition
- Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies, Other
- General Literature
- American Literature (United States)
5 more programmes
- American Literature (Canadian)
- English Literature (British and Commonwealth)
- Children's and Adolescent Literature
- Literature, Other
- English Language and Literature/Letters, Other
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose English & Literature at the Major step.
Where many students take english & literature
- Southern New Hampshire UniversityManchester, NH · 2% of degrees · 163,164 undergraduates
- Arizona State University Digital ImmersionScottsdale, AZ · 3% of degrees · 53,782 undergraduates
- University of Central FloridaOrlando, FL · 2% of degrees · 59,146 undergraduates
- Liberty UniversityLynchburg, VA · 2% of degrees · 50,012 undergraduates
- University of California-Los AngelesLos Angeles, CA · 3% of degrees · 33,475 undergraduates
- California State University-Long BeachLong Beach, CA · 3% of degrees · 35,924 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Foreign Languages
- Comparative Literature
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Foreign Languages at the Major step.
Where many students take foreign languages
- The University of Texas at AustinAustin, TX · 4% of degrees · 42,855 undergraduates
- Brigham Young UniversityProvo, UT · 3% of degrees · 32,952 undergraduates
- Boise State UniversityBoise, ID · 5% of degrees · 17,674 undergraduates
- University of Wisconsin-MadisonMadison, WI · 2% of degrees · 36,902 undergraduates
- University of ArizonaTucson, AZ · 2% of degrees · 42,537 undergraduates
- University of California-Los AngelesLos Angeles, CA · 2% of degrees · 33,475 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Other fields
Our college matcher doesn't offer this field as a major, so we can't suggest colleges for it here.
Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies
- Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature
- Linguistics and Anthropology
- Linguistics and Computer Science
- Digital Humanities and Textual Studies, General
- Digital Humanities
- Textual Studies
Related careers
Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.
- Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary
$85,020 median · +2.7% projected
- Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
$79,350 median · +0.2% projected
- Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary
$80,260 median · +2% projected
- Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary
$84,290 median · +2.2% projected
- History Teachers, Postsecondary
$83,820 median · 0% projected
- Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary
$78,620 median · +2.2% projected
Sources
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0
Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.
Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk