In which EU countries are teachers paid the most?

No one disputes the claim that teaching is a critically important profession for society, yet at the same time one cannot say that this profession is compensated entirely fairly. Moreover, the situation with teacher pay is uneven worldwide. The salaries of school academic staff — teachers and principals above all — are the most significant expenditure item in municipal education. And where in the EU are teachers paid best?

Let us take the figures for 1 academic year for a General lower secondary teacher (approximately grades 5–9), and the top 10 looks as follows:

1. The leader — Luxembourg = approximately €62 000 even at the start of a career, 97 000–109 000 — experienced professionals,
2. Germany = €61 000 for beginners, up to €79 000 — professionals,
3. Denmark = €45 000 for starting teachers, up to €52 000 — for top professionals,
4. Spain = €43 000,
5. The Netherlands, Austria = approximately €41 000,
6. Belgium = from €33 000 to €36 000 (depending on the region),
7. Malta = €36 000,
8. Sweden = €32 000,
9. Ireland, Croatia = €31 000,
10. Cyprus = €29 000.

For a complete picture, it would be more appropriate to produce two charts here, because the salary of a young specialist at the start of their career and that of an experienced professional can differ significantly. The starting salary of teachers is approximately 40% lower than that of other specialists with higher education, which also has a negative effect on the profession's popularity among students.

The countries at the bottom of the list, with the lowest salaries, are Greece, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Latvia.

Why does teacher experience play such an important role?

A teacher's advancement up the career ladder — is not a passive “I have been teaching this class for ten years already,” but a complex of continuous professional development, mastering new roles and responsibilities, and demonstrable results (successful graduates, olympiad winners), and that is in addition to the objective accumulation of years of service. On average across the EU (based on data from 11 countries), a teacher needs 31–40 years to reach the top of their career; the exceptions are Finland and Denmark, where up to 10 years of experience is required (depending on the education obtained).

Interestingly, a 2025 OECD study identified an obvious pattern: increasing teacher salaries generally leads to improved student learning outcomes!