Secondary school teacher: €2,800 gross, not net

The real salary of a secondary school teacher: €1,800 net to start

A perfect headline has been circulating for some time: €2,800 a month, two extra payments, twenty hours of classes a week and free afternoons. With that pitch, the question thrown into the air was almost inevitable: is there any platform delivery rider, any rider, who earns that for those hours? The answer falls apart as soon as you look inside the payslip. Because the €2,800 is gross, because the first posting is not the desired posting and because between a teacher who has just started and one with thirty years' experience there are several hundred euros' difference.

The issue began as a comparison and ended as an X-ray of public-sector teaching employment: how much is earned, how much is really worked and why some see it as the country's cushiest job and others wouldn't recommend it to their worst enemy.

How much does a secondary school teacher in Spain really earn?

The average starting salary is around €1,800–€1,900 net, and varies depending on the autonomous community (region) paying the salary. Some put it as low as €1,900–€2,000 when deductions are counted. As for the €2,800 that recurs in conversations, those who know the sector are clear: it is gross. The difference from net is not an accounting nuance; it is half the argument.

Growth comes in two ways. Trienios and sens — supplements paid every three and six years, the latter tied to training — miccionan that, over time, someone can reach €2,600 net. But that is the picture at the end, not at the start. And a teacher in the second year of Bachillerato or in higher vocational training, working with students who have chosen to be there, is not the same as one in ESO (compulsory secondary education).

On top of that are allowances for roles: being a tutor, head of studies, secretary or headteacher fattens the payslip. It also fattens the workload.

The working day: 20 classroom hours and the work no one sees

The narrative of a continuous timetable and free afternoons has defenders and critics. The figures commonly cited speak of around 20–25 in-person hours a week, with days that can be as short as three hours or less if there is a reduction for a management role. That is not the point in dispute.

The point in dispute is everything that is not seen: marking exams and papers in the afternoons, preparation and the competency-based assessment systems that regional education departments have been imposing over final exam grades. Some argue that extra hours exist even if they are unpaid, and others reply that the same happens in any qualified job.

On “zero stress” and “zero responsibility”, disagreement is total. A secondary classroom is not an office: responsibility for minors, conflict in certain schools and daily life together weigh on the calculations of anyone considering leaving.

The tug-of-war with doctors and the 2005 judge

The most repeated twist was the one comparing teachers and healthcare workers. Some put a doctor's salary at around €5,000 gross, including on-call shifts; in exchange, they had to get a 13.5 in the selectividad (university entrance exam), six years of medical degree and four years of MIR (medical residency). Those defending teachers use that contrast to stress that both are costly careers and two salaries that only converge at the end.

An uncomfortable memory also surfaced: in 2005, a secondary school teacher's payslip was about €400 below a judge's. Two decades later, that gap illustrates a shift in prestige and relative pay.

And the underlying question: if the cushy job is not being a teacher, is it being a civil servant? Some argue the problem is the size of the public sector, and others reply that the proportion of public employees in Spain is lower than in Denmark and other comparable countries. Private-sector unemployment rarely fares well in that debate.

Interinos and concertada: two systems, no severance for one

One of the most technical parts of the issue. A temporary teacher (interino) can rack up twenty years at a school and, if not needed, go home without severance pay. In the concertada (state-subsidised private schools), by contrast, dismissal is paid. The difference in status comes down to this: the interino can move to another posting because their employer is the autonomous community; the concertada teacher returns to the job market and may take months to find a position.

The figure of the indefinido no fijo (a permanent but non-established contract) was also raised, pending a public competition for a post, with a scenario of objective dismissal paid at 20 days per year. It is a legal debate with the rules in flux: what is an expectation today may not be in the next process.

Maths with no candidates and the myth of the cosy civil servant

There is one fact neither side disputes: some specialisms are left without applicants. Maths graduates find better options elsewhere, and authorities end up using jobseeker lists to fill ESO posts.

Running parallel is the opposite diagnosis: too few vocations and too much suspicion. The phrase “those who can, do; those who can't, teach” has been repeated so often that it now works as a cliché, and against it stands the testimony of those who spend years preparing for a post. One concrete case: a technical profile who completed a vocational training course with an average grade of 9 and who, adding the specific subjects, could aspire to a maximum of 13 to enter Medicine. It is not a cushy number; it is a long-distance race.

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Between the €1,800 net of a first posting and the €2,800 gross of the opening headline lies the same distance as between the real classroom and the brochure. The figure that unsettles is neither of the two: it is that a teacher with three decades of trienios ends up on €2,600 net. Less than the headline promise, more than a beginner, and with the same unanswered question: how much is it worth to put up with a group of teenagers five days a week.