Page 6 - IDEA Studie 3 2020 Platy ucitelu

PLATY UČITELŮ V ROCE 2019: BLÝSKÁ SE NA LEPŠÍ ČASY? IDEA 2020
continue to receive the lowest relative salaries, reflecting age. Starting salaries for Czech schoolteachers are thus relatively attractive, but that attractiveness swiftly reduces as teachers gain years of experience, whereas their university-educated peers in other professions enjoy dynamic salary increases.
 There is very low variability in teachers’ salaries and it does not correspond to the existing diversity in teacher quality. Over-generalised pay in the school system leads to high quality teachers being undervalued and insufficiently motivated, which increases the risk that they may leave the profession or low interest in this profession among young generation.
 During 2019, there was also a substantial increase in the proportion of teachers’ pay provided as above-tariff items, which almost doubled. As a result this proportion is now similar to that for other university-educated public sector professions. A not insignificant part of the overall increase in teachers’ pay was thus manifested in the above tariff component, as previously promised. Above tariff components are one human resources management tool available at the school level and can take the form of bonuses for effort, strong work ethic or high quality work, or of an external motivator.
 It is also necessary to monitor the motivational aspect of teachers’ salaries at the regional level. The main drivers behind differences in relative teachers’ pay between regions are differences in the levels of pay for other university-educated employees across the regions. The worst situations in this sense are in Prague and Central Bohemia. The relative level of teachers’ pay compared to other university-educated employees looks far more felicitous if we distinguish between pay levels for men and women, since most teachers are women. The relative level of teachers’ pay also looks better if median pay is used rather than mean pay, since median pay is not affected by the extremely high salaries in managerial positions that are largely occupied by men. Taking age into account, however, renders teachers’ pay relatively low, because the Czech teaching staff is relatively old.
 The reform efforts recently initiated by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, which aim to reduce the inter-regional differences in the level of financing for teachers’ salaries at different types of schools have evidently already impacted the inter-regional differences in relative teachers’ pay levels during 2019. Between 2018 and 2019 relative teachers’ pay in most regions came some way closer to the national average. Nevertheless, Prague and Central Bohemia still have a long way to go to reach the national average.
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