As school resumes in Luxembourg, teachers in the country can once again look forward to being the highest paid in the world, earning up to €156,000 at their career peak.
Pre-school and primary school teachers at the beginning of their careers earn €79,230 gross per year on average, with a secondary school teacher starting at over €89,000. At the end of their careers, the same teachers can expect to earn around €140,000 and €156,000, respectively, making them the best paid globally, according to the OECD.
Teacher salaries at public schools and for full-time positions are based on the civil servant remuneration scale. Substitute teachers or other assistants earn less.
“Luxembourg decides to pay its teachers high salaries given their enormous responsibility to teach the country’s next generations of skilled workers: they are the future of the Grand Duchy. They are the future of the Grand Duchy. Children and young people have to be very well prepared so that they can contribute to maintaining the good development of the country,” said Carla Jorge of the OGBL labour union.
Teachers in Portugal and France earn far less than their Luxembourg counterparts, according to the OECD. A Portuguese secondary school teacher at the start of their career earns €24,249 gross per year, while in France they earn €38,004. At the top of their career, a secondary school teacher in Portugal has an annual salary of €51,270 per year and in France €54,752.
The salaries of teachers in European Union countries at the various levels of education are published annually by the European Commission’s Eurydice network, which also confirms that the salaries of Luxembourg teachers are the highest.
In Luxembourg, a primary school teacher with 15 years’ experience earns an annual salary of €115,676 gross. In Portugal, under the same conditions, a teacher earns €30,950. In French-speaking Belgium, the same teacher earns €53,993 a year and in German-speaking Belgium €54,999, with teachers paid differently in different parts of the country.
In secondary education, a teacher with 15 years’ experience earns €123,864 per year in Luxembourg, €76,400 in Germany and €44,091 in France. In Portugal, a teacher with the same length of career earns €30,950, and in the Netherlands €81,282, according to Eurydice.
Among neighbouring countries, French teachers have the lowest salaries and German teachers have the best salaries, but not as high as their Luxembourg colleagues. Bulgaria, Poland and Greece pay the lowest teacher salaries, the Eurydice data shows.
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(This story was first published by Contacto. Translated using AI, edited by Cordula Schnuer.)
