Full report EN 

Comparative analysis DE ES FR IT 

Teachers’ knowledge and skills, their commitment to the job, and the quality of school leadership are essential elements in attaining high educational quality outcomes. The COVID crisis has underlined the wide range of tasks and the strong engagement required from both teachers and school leaders to ensure quality teaching especially in times of adverse circumstances. Teachers’ remuneration and career prospects is an intrinsic part of policies aiming to attract the best-qualified graduates and retain the best teachers.

This report covers the statutory salaries of teachers and school heads in pre-primary, primary and general secondary public schools in 2018/19 in the Erasmus+ countries.

The comparative overview examines the statutory salaries for beginning teachers, and the prospects for salary increases throughout their career. It also looks into salary differences across education levels, usually linked to different qualification requirements. On average, pre-primary teachers tend to earn less and upper secondary teachers usually earn more, although in some European countries, all schoolteachers receive the same salaries.

Teachers’ purchasing power has generally remained quite stable in recent years but, in a few Central and Eastern European countries with relatively low salary levels, it has improved substantially.  The analysis also offers an overview of how school heads are remunerated, and how their earnings may increase with the size of the school.

The report includes country sheets illustrating the data on salaries and allowances of teachers and school heads for each education system. Data have been collected jointly by the Eurydice and the OECD/NESLI networks.