The average teacher’s salary in Israel is roughly the same as the OECD average, but the gaps are larger.
A new agreement between the Teachers’ Union and the Finance Ministry is imminent, according to Finance Ministry representative Kobi Bar-Nathan.
Bar-Nathan, who was directly involved in negotiations with the Teachers’ Union, noted that the Ministry’s latest report on teachers’ wages, filed Monday, precedes a “new agreement with the teachers, designed to build the foundation for our children, the future generation.”
WAGE DISPARITY
Amid ongoing strikes and reports of vacant positions within the Israeli education system, the Finance Ministry published a report detailing wage expenditures in the education system for the 2020-2021 academic year. According to the report’s findings, there has been a sharp rise in the rate of young teachers leaving their fields, likely due to significant disparities in educators’ wages.
On an international scale, the average teacher’s salary is not low in comparison to the rest of the world, but Israel has one of the world’s biggest gaps in salaries between teachers, according to a report by the OECD on teachers’ salaries in 2021 that was published on Sunday.
The report showed that salaries range from 5,880 NIS for teachers in training to 25,346 NIS for school principals with an average salary for a full-time teacher at 13,971 NIS.
The average salary for teachers was shown to be roughly at the same rate as the international average of all OECD countries with the average salary for principals rating slightly higher.
Despite the fact that the Israeli average matches the international average, the average salary for beginner teachers is far lower than the OECD average. A beginning teacher in Israel earns roughly 40% of the salary earned by Israel’s highest-paid teachers in comparison to the OECD average which is 60%.
Beyond the below-average salary paid to teaching staff, younger teachers within the education industry are further subjected to significant wage disparity. On average, young teaching staff earn only 29% of the salary of veteran teaching staff. The report attributes this to two factors: base salary differences, which are among the highest in the world; and low job rates for beginning teachers.
The large gap was found to be discouraging to new teachers and could explain why many new teachers quit, creating a shortage of teachers in the education industry. According to the report, roughly 60% of teachers with 2-5 years of seniority quit in the last three years.
The report also showed that Israeli students attend school for the most days of all OECD countries with 214 school days a year for elementary school and 205 for secondary school compared to the world average of 186 and 184 respectively.
THE TEACHERS STRIKE BACK
In recent years, the salary disparities in the education system have narrowed slightly, as the salary department has attempted to even the disparity in collaboration with the Teachers’ Union. Last month, the Union agreed to pause its latest strike in order to pursue negotiations with the Finance Ministry.
“We acceded to the request of the minister of education and decided to freeze the sanctions,” said Teachers’ Union secretary-general Yaffa Ben David. “I hope for continued substantive and honest negotiations with the commissioner for wages, and expect that the rest of the government and the political system will see the good of the system and understand that if we do not reach an agreement in the coming days, we will have to resume the struggle.”
“I hope for continued substantive and honest negotiations with the commissioner for wages, and expect that the rest of the government and the political system will see the good of the system and understand that if we do not reach an agreement in the coming days, we will have to resume the struggle.”
Yaffa Ben David
Upon publishing the report, Bar-Nathan acknowledged the responsibility held by the Finance Ministry in relation to the issue.
“The data that emerges from the report … emphasize the need for significant compensation for young teachers, the possibility of personal contracts in popular professions and an agreement that will move the education system forward,” he said.
Bar-Nathan added that “a great responsibility rests on our shoulders as those responsible for the public treasury and we must make sure that the use of public funds will make the education system the best it can be. Our commitment is to promote a good and worthy agreement for students, parents, teachers and administrators.”