Being a teacher does not pay, in Romania strike with 70% of members: the newly hired professor only 560 euros per month (1,300 in Italy)

Teacher salaries are too low. Italy is among the European countries where the amounts are among the lowest, due to both rising inflation and the long periods between one contract renewal and another. The numbers confirm it: in the last decade, the increases signed with Aran have produced no more than 7.5% of an average monthly increase, while the cost of living, especially after Covid and the war in Ukraine, has advanced a lot more quickly. It applies to our peninsula, but also to other countries. One of them is definitely the Romaniawhere these days the teachers’ unions are producing a participatory general strike.

The demand: wages to pace inflationary growth

As stated by the Romanian Education Minister, Sorin Ionwrites the Ansa agency, the percentage of strikers is between 60% and 70%: “an important participation – Ion told the local press -, which will last a few days, but will not cause an extension of the school year” .

Teachers ask “wage increases in step with heavy inflationary growth (in March it was 14.53%, in April 11.5%)”.

How much do a Romanian teacher earn

But how much does a teacher earn in Romania? According to the latest official data from last April, writes the national press agency, “the salary of a teacher in the Balkan country ranges from 45,000 gross lei (approximately 9.100 euro) per year at the start of his career to 77,000 lei gross (about 15,500 euros) per year after 40 years of activityin a context in which the average gross salary in Romania has risen to 6,789 lei (about 1,371 euros) per month, therefore 81,468 gross lei (about 16,460 euros) per year.

Now, if the figure is divided by thirteen months and 20-25% is subtracted (for taxes and social security charges), a newly hired Romanian teacher earns just 560 euros; at the end of his career he manages to get even 900 euros net per month. Therefore, in Romania teachers employ less than half of Italian teachers. It is obvious that the comparison must take into account the Romanian cost of living and salaries, much lower than the Italian ones.

However, there is one datum that unites the two countries: public school teachers are, in Romania with Italy, one of the lowest paid categories in the entire national territory.

And in Italy?

We remember that in Italy the average annual salaries of teachers are around 30,000 euros gross. While in public administrationagain over the course of twelve months, are equal to approx 34.000 euro. Remaining with these percentages, therefore, in Italy a teacher earns more than 10% less than an average civil servant (a gap, in default, not very different from that recorded among teachers in Romania).

But there is another fact concerning Italy that is truly disarming: Eurydice told us, with the annual reports on the salaries of teachers and school heads, that in Italy to obtain the maximum salary (no more than 50% of the initial salary) a 35-year career is required; in Scotland they serve just 10 years; in France (where one retires three years earlier) the salary peak of 20 years of service is reached.

It remains evident, therefore that the further cut in the tax wedge envisaged by the Meloni government for those who earn a maximum of 35,000 euros gross per year – for just six months – with an increase placed between 50 and 100 euros gross, therefore around 30/40 euros on average per month, for sure”will not be able to solve the problem”.

For those who work off-site, they are not enough

A survey produced by School technique the last week highlighted that for teachers and ATA these fees become even more inadequate: the overall average expenditure of workers outside, for rents and for utilitiesis attested for them in fact around the 1.000 euro per month.

Considering that it is often precarious or newly hired, with the basic salary of 1,300-1,400 euros net per month (for ATAs of just over 1,000 euros) it is clear that the monthly expense incurred for rents and bills is not sustainable: both for those who live alone and for those who have a dependent family.