Press Release: Teachers’ starting salaries not attractive, says report

In almost all European countries, gross basic salaries for teachers entering the profession are lower than national GDP per capita - and their pay will not even double over the course of their working lifetime, except in a handful of Member States.

These are the main findings of a report which compares the salaries of public-sector teachers and school heads in 27 EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Turkey. The data, based on the 2009/10 school year, covers pre-primary to upper secondary education. Where figures are available, and taking both salary levels and allowances into account, the best paid teachers in the European Union are in Luxembourg, Denmark and Austria. The least well-paid are in Bulgaria and Romania. Six million teachers are currently employed in the Member States.

The report, compiled by the Commission's Eurydice network, is published to coincide with World Teachers' Day (5 October).