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At both primary and secondary level, Luxembourg’s teachers enjoy the highest salaries among the club of mostly highly-developed countries in the OECD.
Experienced secondary school teachers receive average salaries of just over €107,000 ($109,204), while experienced primary school teachers get an average salary of around €100,000 ($101,360).
These figures put Luxembourg’s teachers way above second-placed Germany, where experienced secondary teachers get an average of just over €89,000 ($91,041), with primary school teachers receiving about €79,000 ($80,407).
As such, it’s no surprise that training to be a teacher remains a popular option in the Grand Duchy, with 180 primary school teachers alone starting their training in 2021/2022.
The OECD figures are from 2020 and are calculated based on average pre-tax salaries according to official pay scales. Experience is defined as having worked for at least 15 years in schools.
Experienced teachers’ salaries, 2020 (selected countries)
© RTL Graphic / OECD
Even for new starters, however, Luxembourg’s teacher salaries buck the trend. Primary teachers can expect around €68,000 ($69,425) at the beginning of their career, with secondary teachers earning over €77,000 ($78,681) from the start.
By contrast, starting salaries in lowest-placed Brazil start at an equivalent of just under €14,000 ($13,983). Meanwhile, teachers in Luxembourg’s neighbour, France, can expect to start at between €31,000 ($31,803) for primary, and €34,000 ($34,833) for secondary.
Not only do teachers enjoy high salaries in the Grand Duchy, they also benefit from rapid pay growth in the early years of their careers. A study published by the European Commission in 2020 found that teachers’ salaries rose rapidly during the first few years in the profession.
Nevertheless, it’s not all good news. Between 2014/15 and 2018/19, teachers in Luxembourg lost around 11.6% of their purchasing power, as inflation eroded the value of their salaries.