Salaries 2/3/12

Salaries

Friday, 2 March 2012

2 March 2012

Press Release by Irish National Teachers’ Organisation On Salaries

The average annual salary for a female primary teacher is 93% of a male teacher according to figures released by the Irish National Teachers Organisation.

The INTO today (European Equal Pay Day) released figures showing that female primary teachers earn on average less than their male colleagues. The average annual salary for a male teacher is 58,040 euro while a female teacher earns only 53,766 euro. Although today a female teacher earns 93 percent of the salary of a male teacher this has grown from 87 percent in 2003.

Statistics show that the percentage of primary teachers who are women has grown from 82.5% in 2003 to 86% in 2011.

Despite the increasing number of female teachers at primary level they remain under represented in leadership roles. The percentage of principals who are women is 63 percent although this has increased from 51% in 2003.

In overall terms average salaries for primary teachers have fallen over the past year from 62,000 for a male to 58,000 and from 56,000 for a female to 53,700. 

Commenting on the figures Sheila Nunan, General Secretary of the INTO, said the difference was mainly due to an over-representation of men in senior positions and the fact that many women have had broken employment over the years mainly for child care reasons. She said although good progress had been made by the INTO in this area more needed to be done.

On the overall level of teacher salary she urged government to heed the recent report by the OECD which stated that the strongest performing countries in the OECD invested in teachers’ salaries. She said this particularly applied to new entrant teachers who have seen their salaries reduced by more than a quarter.

She said there was no room for further cuts to salary. “Irish teachers on average earn less than workers with similar education levels and years of experience in Ireland.” She said teachers in Ireland earn on average 88% of the income of workers with similar education levels in Ireland.

ENDS