OECD (2000)

D1
Statutory Salaries of Teachers in Public Primary and Secondary Schools
This indicator shows the
starting, mid-career
and maximum statutory
salaries of teachers in
public primary and
secondary education.
Statutory salaries of
teachers are compared
in absolute terms
with GDP per capita
and with salaries
of other workers.
POLICY CONTEXT
Teachers’ salary levels can affect both the desirability of entering the teaching
profession and the ability of schools to retain the most skilled teachers.
Ensuring that there will be enough skilled teachers to educate all children is an
important policy concern in all OECD countries. Teachers’ salaries are also the
single largest factor in the cost of providing education. The size of education
budgets reflects either an explicit or implicit trade-off between a number of
interrelated factors, including statutory teachers’ salaries, student/teaching staff
ratios (Indicator B7), the quantity of instructional time planned for students
(Indicator D4), and the designated number of teaching hours (Indicator D3).
This indicator examines the starting, mid-career and maximum statutory salaries
of teachers with the minimum level of qualifications required to be certified as
a teacher of public primary and secondary education. First, statutory salaries are
examined in relation to GDP per capita. This is a rough measure of investment in
teachers relative to a country’s ability to finance educational expenditure. Second,
statutory salaries are examined in comparable US dollars (adjusted for relative
purchasing power) in order to determine the absolute volume of resources
invested in each teacher. The salaries of teachers are then compared with the
salaries of other workers, particularly those holding an ISCED 5A qualification, in
order to examine the competitiveness of teaching relative to other occupations.
Statutory salaries of teachers relative to GDP per capita
Statutory salaries for teachers relative to GDP per capita are an indication of
the extent to which a country invests in teaching resources, relative to the financial
ability to fund educational expenditure. High salaries relative to GDP per capita
suggests that a country is making more of an effort to invest its financial resources
in teachers.
Statutory salaries for
teachers are relatively
low in the Czech
Republic, Hungary and
Norway and relatively
high in Korea, Spain
and Switzerland.
The relationship
between teachers’
salaries and per capita
wealth is not
straightforward.
Statutory salaries for
teachers with 15 years’
experience in Korea and
Switzerland are more
than five times those
in the Czech Republic
and Hungary.
Starting salaries and mid-career salaries are lowest relative to GDP per capita
in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Norway for both primary and secondary
teachers (Chart D1.1). Starting and mid-career salaries relative to GDP per capita
are highest for public primary and secondary teachers in Korea and Spain, as well
as in Switzerland for public lower and general upper secondary teachers. In Korea,
the teachers’ salaries are approximately 1.7 times GDP per capita at the beginning
of their careers and 2.7 times GDP per capita after 15 years’ experience.
Although the Czech Republic and Hungary have both relatively low GDP per
capita and low teachers’ salaries, other countries with GDP per capita below the
OECD average, including Korea and Spain, have comparatively high teachers’ salaries.
Norway and the United States, two countries with relatively high GDP per
capita, spend a below-average proportion of their wealth on teachers’ salaries, and
Switzerland spends an above-average proportion of its relatively high GDP per
capita on teachers’ salaries.
In the OECD, annual statutory salaries of public primary-school teachers with
15 years’ experience range from below US$10 000 in the Czech Republic and
Hungary to over US$40 000 in Japan and Switzerland. A primary teacher in
Switzerland, the country with the highest statutory salary with 15 years’ experience,
is paid almost five times as much as a primary teacher in Hungary, where the statutory
starting salary is lowest, even after an adjustment for purchasing power parities.
This difference has a large impact on the variation in education costs per
student (Indicator B4).
© OECD 2000
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