Budapest high school: with sufficient experience, the basic salary of a teacher can be higher than a cleaner's

After the news spread like wildfire that a cleaner is offered a higher salary than a bilingual teacher in a Budapest high school, the institution responded with a clarification on their website: The gross salary of 203,000 forints (499 euros) is the lowest available in the profession for trainees and does not even include the minimum wage supplement and the occupational supplement for the sector – Xantus János Gimnázium in Budapest writes on their website.

They further explain that the portal, profession.hu does not allow the recommended salary to be posted in text. However, the salary is not fixed at 203,000 forints, but is calculated according to the official teachers' salary chart.

According to this, the lowest salary that can be paid in gross is as follows:

• 203,000 forints basic pay
• plus 57,000 forints as a supplement to reach minimum wage,
• plus an occupational supplement of 20 percent, which is HUF 52 thousand.

Since according to the rules of profession.hu the offered salary cannot be lower than the salary posted on the portal, the lowest possible salary is displayed, which in this case is the trainees' gross salary of 203 thousand HUF. Teachers with more experience will obviously receive a higher salary if they apply for the job.

According to the school, posting a teaching job for a gross salary of 203 000 HUF "has so far not caused any problems in interpretation for applicants". It is telling, however, that weeks after the beginning of the school year, the advertisements are still online, so there can't have been many applicants. (It is also telling that the salary of a trainee teacher has to be supplemented to reach the minimum wage – we have written about teachers' pitiful salaries before.

So, according to Xantus János Két Tanítási Nyelvű Gimnázium, if you have the right experience, you can achieve a higher net salary than an afternoon cleaner.

According to Telex's calculations, a gross basic wage of 203 thousand HUF, including the two types of additional supplements, means a total net salary of about 208 thousand HUF, which (with a higher education degree and an advanced level language exam) is a full 8 thousand HUF (19,9 euros) more than the net salary of a cleaner.

However, if we look only at the basic salary without the bonuses, a teacher needs to have considerable professional experience to have a higher net salary than the afternoon cleaner.