Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries

David Evans, Fei Yuan () and Deon Filmer
Additional contact information
Fei Yuan: Harvard Graduate School of Education

No 538, Working Papers from Center for Global Development

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Education; teachers; public sector; teacher pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I25 J31 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2020-08-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid?: Evidence from 15 Countries (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cgd:wpaper:538

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