Teacher salaries: purchasing power stopped, significant increase only after 35 years of service. All official data [PDF]

–
–

–

The Eurydice network celebrates World Teachers’ Day on 5 October with the publication of the report on the salaries and allowances of teachers and school heads in Europe.

The crisis dictated by Covid-19 highlighted the many tasks and the strong commitment required of both teachers and school managers to ensure quality teaching.

“Teachers’ and School Heads’ Salaries and Allowances in Europe 2018/19” it examines the salaries of the tables and the allowances of teachers and school heads in pre-primary, primary and secondary public schools of 42 educational systems, comparing the different conditions and wage progressions.

Among the main results there are significant differences between European countries in the starting salaries of teachers, which can in fact vary, depending on the country, from 5 to 80 thousand euros gross per year. Italy, together with France, Malta, Portugal and the United Kingdom, with salaries for teachers ranging between 22 and 28 thousand euros a year, is in line with the European average.

The starting salaries of teachers in Belgium, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Scotland are higher than average. Even higher wages are recorded in countries with high GDP per capita: Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

In terms of the amount and time required for career progression-related salary increases, there are substantial differences between European countries.

In the case of Italy, teachers need significant length of service to achieve modest salary increases: salaries can only increase by about 50% after 35 years of service. By contrast, in Ireland, the Netherlands and Poland, the starting salaries of teachers can even increase by more than 60% already in the first fifteen years of service, and even more in subsequent years.

In Spain, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, exactly as in Italy, the purchasing power of teachers has remained more or less the same over the past 4 years.