How Much Money Teachers Earn Around the World

Julie Giusti
·Editor
Updated

Does it pay to be a teacher? According to a new BuzzFeed video, which reveals the average teacher’s salary in 13 countries, it depends on where you live. The figures in the clip (all converted to U.S. dollars) are from a 2014 study by GEMS Education Solutions that examined government spending on teaching. Here are the highlights, just in time for the new school year.

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The highest-paying country on the list is Switzerland, where teachers make $68,820 per year. That’s $22,890 more than what the average educator earns in Japan ($45,930), where teaching is the highest-paid civil servant position.

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Australian teachers make about $44,000 annually, which is more than what the average teacher makes in both the U.S. and the U.K. ($41,460 and $40,910, respectively.) In Sweden, where free education is available to every child starting at age 6, teachers make $31,610 every year; in Brazil, they make $14,840. The lowest-paying country on the list is Indonesia, where volunteer teachers are given army survival training before being sent to remote, poverty-stricken schools. Their salary? An astonishing $2,830 per year.

Here’s a much-deserved thank-you to teachers around the world.

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