Teacher pay has become a flashpoint across Europe, with unions in France staging protests demanding higher salaries, more staff, and better working conditions. Their grievances echo a broader continental challenge: making the teaching profession financially attractive enough to draw and keep talent.
According to the OECD's Education at a Glance 2026 report, teachers generally earn less than other workers with similar qualifications, and experts warn that uncompetitive pay is undermining recruitment and retention. But the gap between countries is striking.
Who pays teachers the most?
Among the 28 education systems compared, actual salaries for primary school teachers in 2025 ranged from €18,669 in Turkey to €74,086 in Denmark. These figures represent the average annual gross earnings of full-time teachers aged 25–64, including bonuses, holiday pay, and other allowances.
Denmark leads the field, followed by Iceland (€73,752), Ireland (€69,747), Germany (€69,453), and Austria (€65,851). Norway (€59,453), Belgium's Flemish Community (€59,105), Northern Ireland (€57,838), Scotland (€57,619), Belgium's French Community (€55,689), Wales (€52,894), Finland (€52,272), and England (€50,727) all exceed the €50,000 mark.
Among the major European economies, Germany pays the most, with the four UK nations close behind. France offers €41,968, while Italy trails at €32,100. No comparable figure is available for Spain.
At the lower end, seven countries pay primary teachers less than €25,000: Czechia (€24,457), Hungary (€23,181), Slovakia (€22,936), Romania (€20,805), Latvia (€20,516), Greece (€18,746), and Turkey (€18,669).
Daniel Wisniewski, secretary general of the European Federation of Education Employers, told Euronews Business that the wide variation reflects "national income levels, salary structures, qualifications and career progression, rather than one single factor." He added that "differences in taxation, social benefits and allowances also complicate comparisons."
Upper secondary teachers earn more
Teachers at upper secondary level generally earn more than their primary counterparts, except in Turkey and Northern Ireland. Salaries are identical in Scotland, Lithuania, and Estonia. Upper secondary salaries range from €17,615 in Turkey to €93,938 in Iceland, with Denmark (€85,999) and Germany (€80,163) also above €80,000.
The largest gaps favouring upper secondary teachers appear in Iceland, Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Austria, and Germany, where they earn at least €10,000 more than primary teachers.
Purchasing power: a different picture
Raw salary figures don't tell the whole story. To compare what teachers can actually buy, Euronews Business adjusted the OECD data using Eurostat's purchasing power parities, expressing results in purchasing power standards (PPS), where the EU average is 100.
On this basis, Germany offers primary teachers the highest purchasing power at 64,143 PPS, followed by Austria (58,265), Denmark (53,036), Ireland (51,226), and Belgium's Flemish Community (50,846). Greece ranks lowest at 21,456 PPS, with Latvia (24,670), Slovakia (26,916), Czechia (27,349), and Estonia (28,197) also near the bottom.
For upper secondary teachers, Germany again tops the ranking at 74,034 PPS, while Greece is last at 23,289. Among the large economies, Italy comes in at 36,964 PPS, below France (46,058) and England (43,091).
Wisniewski noted that significant gaps remain even after adjusting for living costs, indicating that price levels alone cannot explain the differences. "National pay policies, qualification requirements, career scales, experience and the earnings available in alternative graduate professions also contribute significantly," he said.
Professor Mihails Hazans of the University of Latvia pointed out that countries at the top of the PPS rankings also have GDP per capita well above the EU average. "The factors behind these differences include traditions and social norms, strength of teachers' trade unions, as well as actual workload covered by the statutory salaries," he told Euronews Business.
When nominal and PPS rankings are compared, some countries shift dramatically. Turkey rises six places and Poland five for primary teachers, while Belgium's French Community and Romania move up four. Iceland drops from second to twelfth, and Sweden and Estonia fall by three places.
The debate over teacher pay is unlikely to fade. As discussions about public sector salaries continue, and with EU enlargement on the agenda, the ability of member states to invest in education will remain a key test of their commitment to future competitiveness.
