“Doubling the salaries of professors would lead to a review of the entire salary scale for civil servants”

Tribune. Anne Hidalgo proposed on September 13 to “Multiply by at least two the salaries of all the people in contact with the pupils”. Some, like La France insoumise, put the cost of the measure at 60 billion euros, while others, like Jean-Michel Blanquer, speak of 150 billion euros. Vast debate (how to finance?), But the essential is not there.

Beyond the quantification of this considerable cost, and if almost everyone agrees on the need to revalue the salary in the teaching world, this measure would lead to multiple distortions on the labor market that Mr.me Hidalgo probably did not see and that go beyond the scope of teachers.

Such a measure would lead to a review of the entire salary scale for all civil servants. We could not pay a young administrative assistant, or even a young enarque, much less than a beginning teacher. Or else, we would no longer find anyone to recruit into the public service apart from national education.

Teacher salaries: France is a poor student at the OECD

To be able to compare salaries on a global scale, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) transcribes them into a common value – the US dollar – including bonuses. In 2019, a French primary school teacher thus earns 31,300 dollars gross per year (25,643 euros), for more than 60,000, at the same level of seniority, in Germany, and 33,914 on average in the countries of the OECD. French teachers suffer from both lower remuneration and slower progression: in the middle of their career (after fifteen years of experience), a French teacher earns 38,173 dollars gross per year, for 48,801 dollars of average wage in the OECD.

As for non-teaching staff, could a canteen and maintenance staff seriously earn twice as much as its equivalent in the private sector? And what about the personnel of external companies who intervene for the cleaning of colleges, high schools or universities?

Could a young engineer earn significantly less than a junior school teacher?

In addition, beyond school, college and high school, the measure should obviously be extended to the university. It would be difficult to imagine that a young lecturer, necessarily holding a doctorate, bac + 8, earns half as much as a beginning school teacher.

Finally, such a measure would lead a beginning teacher to earn as much as experienced managers. This would result in such a distortion in the world of work that the wages of the private sector themselves could only increase, dragging the entire corporate wage bill sharply upwards, which could only harm the economy. competitiveness. Could a young engineer earn significantly less than a junior school teacher?

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Despite its necessary aspect, this measure to revalue remuneration in education does not sufficiently take into account the reality of the labor market, its porosity, even partial, between public and private, and between professions.

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