“All the money is for the Armed Forces of Ukraine”: the Cabinet of Ministers explained why the salary of a Ukrainian teacher is ten times lower than in the EU
In the Ukrainian educational environment, the issue of teachers’ salaries is becoming more and more acute. This becomes a systemic threat, which in wartime conditions acquires a critical scale. Because of meager salaries, teachers are quitting en masse, leaving public schools or moving abroad, leaving behind empty classrooms and demoralized teams. At the same time, young people do not want to enter pedagogical universities. The professionals who still remain in the profession live on the edge of survival, while the demands on them are constantly increasing. In such conditions, Ukraine risks being left without teachers, and then the recovery after the war will lose its most important support.
On April 29, 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine announced respond to the electronic petition No. 41/007692-25ep “Increase in salary for teaching staff”, which was registered on January 15, 2025 and has collected more than 25,000 signatures. The petition emphasized that the average salary of a Ukrainian teacher does not exceed 300 dollars, while in neighboring Poland it is 1200-1500, in the Czech Republic – from 1400 dollars, in Germany – from 4000 to 5000 dollars. At the same time, according to the State Statistics Service, the average salary in Ukraine exceeds 15,000 hryvnias, and for most teachers it is much lower. Against this background, the contrast with the salaries of central government officials (over UAH 50,000) and the management of Naftogaz JSC (from UAH 500,000 to 1.5 million monthly) became outrageous even for the restrained educational community.
In its official response, the government admitted: the salary of teachers is indeed formed according to the mechanism of the Unified tariff grid, tied to the salary of the first tariff category, which cannot be lower than the subsistence minimum. According to this order:
“The amounts of remuneration for employees of certain branches of the budget sphere, in particular institutions and educational institutions, are determined by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of August 30, 2002 No. 1298 “On the remuneration of employees based on the Unified tariff grid of grades and coefficients for the remuneration of employees of institutions, institutions and organizations of certain branches of the budget sphere” and issued to implement this resolution by the Order of the Ministry of Education and Culture of September 26, 2005 No. 557 “On streamlining the terms of remuneration and approving schemes of tariff levels for employees of educational institutions, educational institutions and scientific institutions”.
The sizes of salaries according to the tariff categories of the Unified tariff grid of categories and coefficients for the remuneration of employees of institutions, establishments and organizations of individual branches of the budget sphere are determined on the basis of uniform approaches to the classification (differentiation) of tariff categories depending on the educational and qualification level of a certain position, complexity, responsibility and conditions of the work performed and are calculated based on the size of the official salary of an employee of tariff category 1 of the Unified Tariff grids of grades and coefficients for the remuneration of employees of institutions, establishments and organizations of individual branches of the budget sphere, determined at a level not lower than the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons, established on January 1 of the calendar year.
The specified mechanism for forming the scheme of salaries (tariff rates) of employees of institutions, establishments and organizations of certain branches of the budget sphere complies with the norms of Article 96 of the Code of Labor Laws of Ukraine, Articles 6 and 8 of the Law of Ukraine “On Labor Payment”.
The Government also reminds that additional payments are provided to teaching staff in accordance with the current regulations:
“The Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated January 11, 2018 No. 22 “On increasing the salary of teaching staff” established a 10 percent increase in salaries (salary rates) of teaching staff in institutions and educational institutions.
Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated January 31, 2001 No. 78 “Some issues of the implementation of certain provisions of the first part of Article 57 and the fourth part of Article 61 of the Law of Ukraine “On Education” provides for an allowance for years of service.
Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 23, 2011 No. 373 “On the establishment of an allowance for teaching staff of preschool, extra-curricular, general secondary, professional (vocational and technical), higher education, other institutions and establishments regardless of their subordination” established an allowance for the purpose of increasing the prestige of the work of teaching staff.
By resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 28, 2021 No. 1391 “Some issues of establishing salary increases (salary rates) and additional payments for certain types of pedagogical activity in state and communal institutions and educational institutions” approved the amounts of salary increases (salary rates) and additional payments for certain types of pedagogical activity.
Part one of Article 57 of the Law of Ukraine “On Education” establishes the mandatory payment of an annual monetary reward to teaching staff in the amount of one official salary (salary rate) for conscientious work, exemplary performance of the duties assigned to them, and payment of health care benefits in the amount of a monthly official salary (salary rate) when granting annual leave.
In addition, the answer states that according to Article 24 of the Law of Ukraine “On Comprehensive General Secondary Education”, school founders have the right to set additional fees from their own income, but in wartime local budgets are unable to implement this.
The government admits: “currently, one of the ways to increase the wages of employees in certain branches of the budget sphere, including teaching staff, is to increase the size of the salary of an employee of the 1st tariff category”, which would contribute “on a unified basis to an increase in the specific weight of the salary in the salary structure and to an increase in the level of remuneration”. But he notes that this requires “significant additional expenditures from the budgets of all levels, which is problematic during martial law, since all of the budget’s own revenues are directed to the needs of the Security and Defense Forces.”
In conclusion, the government cites the only practical measure that has already been implemented: by Resolution No. 1286 of the CMU dated November 8, 2024, a monthly supplement of UAH 1,300 was established from January 1, 2025, and from September 1 – in the amount of UAH 2,600 “until the end of the calendar year in which martial law is suspended or abolished.”
This is the state’s response to teachers who remain at work every day, despite the current circumstances. Without an increase in the tariff category, a new tariff grid and a real review of the payment system, any additional payments remain only a temporary compensation for chronic neglect. The government admits: there is no resource. However, he has to admit something else: without decent pay, there will be no one to teach the children after the war.
