Teachers in Romania earn more than in Hungary – Hungarians cross the border to teach

Even in Romania, teachers earn more than in Hungary. Thus, many of them who live close to the border go to the neighbouring country to work there.

Strike

Teachers continue to strike across the country, although negotiations on their demands will not start until after the elections. Teachers want a one-off, 45% increase in basic wages, so they consider the 30% increase, which was previously introduced by Gergely Gulyás, the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, to be insufficient. What is more, the increase would be gradual, and only start next year, according to Portfolio.hu.

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Romanian salaries

Shockingly, today, even in Romania, people are earning €150 more net in this field, with less work.

“Romanian teachers’ salaries are around €150 net more per month, while the number of teaching hours per week is 18, compared to 25.5 in Hungary,”

Tamás Totyik, the Vice-President of the Teachers’ Union (Pedagógusok Szakszervezete), told Telex.hu. He added that the actual number of teaching hours is even higher (27 hours), so the hourly wage of a Romanian teacher is higher than that of a Hungarian teacher, even in nominal terms.

Strikes stopped during COVID-19, frozen salaries

Totyik also told Portfolio.hu that teachers had already formed a strike organisation in February 2020 because there were already big problems with wages and labour. However, for two years, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they did not start a strike. Now, they have reached the point where they could not wait any longer because there was such serious wage tension in schools.

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“If the government had stuck to the reform process launched in 2013 and not frozen the projection base used to calculate teachers’ salaries at HUF 101 500 (EUR 270), teachers’ salaries would be 100% higher in this country,”

the Vice-President said. He continued by saying:

“But the government froze salaries in 2014, and since then, the only thing that has risen is the allowances, while the workload is increasing.”

A starting teacher’s gross salary is HUF 260,000 (EUR 693) with a 20% bonus. This means a net income of HUF 207,000 (EUR 553), which is drastically lower than the average net salary of almost HUF 300,000 (EUR 800) in the national economy, according to Portfolio.hu.

Source: Telex.hu, portfolio.hu