Teaching staff compensation forms the largest component of education budgets in public primary and secondary educational institutions across OECD countries and are often the subject of debate. This policy brief outlines spending patterns across OECD countries, highlighting the complexity of implementing broad salary reforms. 

Teachers frequently consider their pay insufficient, given their qualifications, workload and the central role they play in student achievement. On the other hand, governments must manage the substantial wage bill arising from employing large numbers of teaching staff, and increasing pay would limit their ability to invest in other policy priorities. Teachers account for such a large share of the public sector workforce that even modest salary increases can have a significant fiscal impact.

Key points

• Compensation for teaching staff (i.e. teachers and teaching assistants) forms the cornerstone of education budgets, representing on average 58% of total spending on public primary and secondary education across OECD countries.
• Increasing compensation for teaching staff would have a significant impact on education budgets but limited effects on job satisfaction.
• A 10% increase in teaching staff compensation would cost the average OECD country 0.19% of its GDP, underlining the challenge of large-scale pay reforms.
• Countries vary widely in how they distribute education spending on public primary and secondary schools.
• Non-teaching staff (i.e. personnel not directly involved in instruction) account for around 20% of staff spending on average.
• Spending patterns in tertiary education are markedly different: on average, only 34% of expenditure goes to teaching staff compensation, due to the greater range of functions at this level.