This evaluation, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, explores the impact of early career retention payments on teacher retention in England. The analysis covers the impact so far of five schemes that have been piloted since 2018: maths and physics retention payment (MPRP), teacher student loan reimbursement (TSLR), maths phased bursary (MPB), early career payment (ECP) and levelling up premium (LUP). These schemes all targeted additional payments to in-service early career teachers teaching shortage secondary subjects, with some payments linked to certain local areas and schools. The authors use a combination of difference-in-differences and triple-differences methodologies to estimate the impact of the retention payments on teacher leaving rates, isolating the impacts from other influences such as changing leaving rates over time (including dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic) and underlying differences in leaving rates by teacher experience, subject, area and school type. The study expands the evidence base on how effective and cost-effective retention payments are and draws out the implications for future policy design.