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A Bulgarian teacher earns almost 10 times less than their Luxembourg colleague at the beginning of their career: €7,731 per year compared to €78,286 in the Grand Duchy, which remains the country in Europe where teachers are best paid.
According to figures published by the European Commission for the 2020/2021 school year (data by Eurydice), Luxembourg teachers are still the best off with an annual salary of €78,286 at the start of their career. At the end of their career, they are paid a maximum of €136,079 per year. As such, Luxembourg remains the European country where teachers are best paid. Germany ranks second in the European ranking, with €60,163 per year at the start of a teacher’s career, ahead of Sweden (€39,097/year) and Austria (€39,055/year).
Of Luxembourg’s three neighbouring countries, France does the worst. Its secondary school teachers have to make do with €29,382/year. This is 2.66 times less than their Luxembourg colleagues. Belgian teachers are slightly better off than their French colleagues with 33,362€/year (still at the beginning of their career). It is worth noting that in Belgium, Flemish teachers are paid more than their Walloon counterparts: €33,988 per year for Dutch speakers against €32,737 for French speakers.
Portuguese teachers earn €22,374 per year, which is less than the European average of €27,019.
Conversely, the lowest paid secondary school teachers, with annual salaries of less than €10,000 per year, are to be found in Poland (€7,908/year), Hungary (€8,063/year), and Romania (€8,818/year), while Bulgaria comes last with €7,731/year, i.e., barely €644 per month.
For the comparison to be effective, the standard of living of the countries should also be compared, and here it is to be noted that the salary level of teachers is very often correlated to the level of GDP per capita: the higher the latter, the higher the average salary of teachers.
Generally speaking, it should be highlighted that the teaching profession is becoming less and less attractive. Many European countries are currently experiencing a major recruitment crisis. In France, 4,000 teachers will be needed for the start of the 2022 school year, and in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous region, 4,400 teachers will be needed.
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According to the European Commission, teachers’ salaries in most countries increased in the 2020-2021 school year, as well as in the previous year, when the Eurydice network also reported a widespread increase, but sometimes less than inflation. In Greece, Luxembourg, and Portugal, for example, there was almost no change in teachers’ pay.