How much does a teacher really earn? The salary is higher than the public thinks
The average salary for a 100% position reaches about 16.6 thousand shekels, and the median is about 15.1 thousand; for veteran teachers, the salary reaches more than 20 thousand shekels, and in management, it is already approaching 30 thousand. The pay slips of young teachers are indeed lower, but a large part of the gap comes from part-time positions and a salary structure that rewards seniority above all.
In almost every debate about the education system, the same sentence recurs: teachers earn little. The data presents a much more complex story. There are young teachers who receive low pay slips, there is too large a gap between the beginning of a career and its end, and there are professions where it is worth paying much more. In the education system, seniority is given enormous weight, while a young teacher and an outstanding teacher are given very little ability to jump ahead due to their performance.
The latest official figure places the average salary for a full-time position at 16,622 shekels per month, and the median at 15,135 shekels. When looking at each education worker according to the scope of the position in which they are actually employed, the average drops to about 14,672 shekels and the median to about 13,835 shekels. This difference is very significant: a large part of the headlines about low wages confuse salary for a position with the salary a person receives when they are employed at 60%, 70%, or 80% of a position.
For new teachers, this is especially prominent. In the first year, the average position scope is around 65%, and in the second year around 77%. A teacher who receives 7,500-8,000 shekels on their pay slip may actually be employed at two-thirds of a position. In terms of a 100% position, the salary is already approaching 11-12 thousand shekels. In addition, the salary of teachers in the first five years of seniority has increased by about 28% within two years following the latest salary agreement.
The real problem lies in the gap between generations. The salary of an education worker at the beginning of the path reaches about 45% of the salary at the peak of seniority, compared to a ratio of about 61% on average in OECD countries. The meaning is simple: the system defers too large a part of the compensation to the later years. A young teacher, even if they are particularly talented, advances mainly with the years, the rank, and the training grants. A veteran teacher can reach more than 20 thousand shekels, and elementary school principals have already reached an average salary of around 30 thousand shekels per month. Deputy principals are in the area of 24 thousand shekels.
The comparison to academic workers also changes the story. The actual salary of elementary school teachers in Israel is about 14% lower than the salary of workers with an academic education who work a full year. In the OECD average, the gap is about 17%. That is, the relative position of the Israeli teacher compared to academics is actually slightly better than the average in developed countries.
Alongside the salary, there is also the structure of work. Teachers in middle schools in Israel report about 33 hours of work per week for a full-time position, a level that is in the low part of the group of countries examined. School vacations reach about 14.8 weeks per year, compared to about 13.5 weeks on average in the OECD. There is also a dedicated training fund that allows for a sabbatical throughout the career, alongside a pension, employment stability, and flexibility that does not exist in many other professions.
An economic pricing of working hours, vacations, and benefits raised an effective value of more than 22 thousand shekels per month for an average teacher in a full-time position. This is the economic value of the employment package, while the pay slip itself stands at a lower amount. This also explains why recent headlines about salaries of 19-20 thousand shekels in personal contracts sound more impressive than reality. In this track, employment is for ten months, the number of presence hours is higher, tenure is replaced by a limited contract, and the track is intended mainly for professions where there is a real need for quality manpower. When calculating all the components, the gap with a permanent teacher narrows significantly.
Hence the direction for the next salary agreement. Another across-the-board raise spreads a lot of money over more than 200,000 education workers. The same budget could work harder when it is directed to teachers at the beginning of the path, to outstanding ones, to teachers of mathematics, sciences, and English, to areas of shortage, and to principals who succeed in improving achievements. The problem with teachers' salaries today is less the height of the fund and more the way it is divided.
