Italian teacher salaries are among the lowest in Europe – Corriere.it

Italian teachers’ starting salaries – along with those of their French, Portuguese and Maltese colleagues – range from €22,000 to €29,000 in total per year. Even higher, between €30,000 and €49,000, are those of teachers in Belgium, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway. Finally, salaries of over €50,000 are recorded in Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, all countries with high GDP per capita. What comes out of the past Eurydice Report On the salaries and allowances of teachers and school heads in Europe. Regarding the amount and time required for salary increases associated with career advancement, there are fundamental differences between European countries. There are countries like Italy where teachers, even with large tenures, make modest salary increases. especially, Primary teachers’ salaries can only be increased by about 50% after 35 years of service. To give a practical example, the salary of a high school teacher at the beginning of his career is usually around 1760.88 gross, which becomes €1350 net. However, at the end of his career, he reached a total of 2,625.78 with a net of 1,960 euros. On the other hand, a middle school teacher at the beginning of his career takes 1,350 euros, then at the end he takes 1,895 euros. On the other hand, regarding kindergarten and primary school teachers, at the beginning of their career they receive 1,262 euros and 1,759 euros at the end.

Regarding changes in the salary scale over the past few years, the report shows that in 2018/19 and 2019/20, teachers saw their salaries increase in most education systems, although the increases were generally modest or linked to inflation. Between 2014/15 and 2019/20, in a quarter of the education systems analyzed, initial inflation-adjusted teacher salaries remained the same or even lower. In Italy, as in France, the purchasing power of teachers has remained more or less the same over the past five years.

In Italy, the minimum basic salary for school administrators is twice that of a teacher with 15 years of service. Principal salaries in Europe often increase according to the size of the school. Furthermore, the responsibilities and experiences of school principals lead to large differences in their salaries in most education systems. In some cases, the minimum basic salary for school heads is less than that of teachers with 15 years of experience. However, in many other countries, it is higher at all levels of education. The most noticeable difference is in France (for secondary level), Italy, Romania, Finland, Iceland (for secondary level), and Sweden.