Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries

Pay levels for public sector workers—and especially teachers—are a constant source of controversy. In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, protests and strikes suggest that pay is low, while simple comparisons to average national income per capita...

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Main Authors:	Evans, David K., Yuan, Fei, Filmer, Deon
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:	TEACHER INCENTIVES TEACHER PAY EDUCATION OUTCOMES PUBLIC SECTOR WAGE LABOR MARKET
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/193701597168506256/Are-Teachers-in-Africa-Poorly-Paid-Evidence-from-15-Countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34355

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recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-343552022-09-20T00:10:43Z Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries Evans, David K. Yuan, Fei Filmer, Deon TEACHER INCENTIVES TEACHER PAY EDUCATION OUTCOMES PUBLIC SECTOR WAGE LABOR MARKET Pay levels for public sector workers—and especially teachers—are a constant source of controversy. In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, protests and strikes suggest that pay is low, while simple comparisons to average national income per capita suggest that it is high. This study presents data on teacher pay from 15 African countries, along with five comparator countries from other regions. The results suggest that in several (seven) countries, teachers' monthly salaries are lower than other formal sector workers with comparable levels of education and experience. However, in all of those countries, teachers report working significantly fewer hours than other workers, so that their hourly wage is higher. Teachers who report fewer hours are no more likely to report holding a second job, although teachers overall are nearly two times more likely to hold a second job than other workers. With higher national incomes, the absolute value of teacher salaries rises, but they fall as a percentage of income per capita. The study explores variation across types of teacher contracts, the association between teacher pay and student performance, and the association between teacher pay premia and other aspects of economies. 2020-08-13T15:13:30Z 2020-08-13T15:13:30Z 2020-08 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/193701597168506256/Are-Teachers-in-Africa-Poorly-Paid-Evidence-from-15-Countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34355 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9358 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	TEACHER INCENTIVES TEACHER PAY EDUCATION OUTCOMES PUBLIC SECTOR WAGE LABOR MARKET
spellingShingle	TEACHER INCENTIVES TEACHER PAY EDUCATION OUTCOMES PUBLIC SECTOR WAGE LABOR MARKET Evans, David K. Yuan, Fei Filmer, Deon Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries
geographic_facet	Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9358
description	Pay levels for public sector workers—and especially teachers—are a constant source of controversy. In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, protests and strikes suggest that pay is low, while simple comparisons to average national income per capita suggest that it is high. This study presents data on teacher pay from 15 African countries, along with five comparator countries from other regions. The results suggest that in several (seven) countries, teachers' monthly salaries are lower than other formal sector workers with comparable levels of education and experience. However, in all of those countries, teachers report working significantly fewer hours than other workers, so that their hourly wage is higher. Teachers who report fewer hours are no more likely to report holding a second job, although teachers overall are nearly two times more likely to hold a second job than other workers. With higher national incomes, the absolute value of teacher salaries rises, but they fall as a percentage of income per capita. The study explores variation across types of teacher contracts, the association between teacher pay and student performance, and the association between teacher pay premia and other aspects of economies.
format	Working Paper
author	Evans, David K. Yuan, Fei Filmer, Deon
author_facet	Evans, David K. Yuan, Fei Filmer, Deon
author_sort	Evans, David K.
title	Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries
title_short	Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries
title_full	Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries
title_fullStr	Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries
title_full_unstemmed	Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries
title_sort	are teachers in africa poorly paid? evidence from 15 countries
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2020
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/193701597168506256/Are-Teachers-in-Africa-Poorly-Paid-Evidence-from-15-Countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34355
_version_	1764480725129625600

Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries

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