More than half of Dominican public school teachers earn less than US$177-month

Santo Domingo.- Despite significant wage increases for public school teachers in recent years, of the 73,656 educators more than 39,000 make less than RD$8,000 (US$177) monthly.

The study ‘State of public policy teaching: on the threshold of change" by the Business Action for Education (EDUCA) and the Latin America Education Reform Program (PREAL) found that teachers’ low pay stems from discounts to pay loans from co-ops and union dues.

It said the discounts can be as high as 98% of the nominal wage. “Only 2,844 teachers receive a net salary of 15,000 pesos or more each month. Meanwhile, 31,199 earn between 8,000 and 15,000 (pesos) monthly.”

According to the Education Ministry Educational Planning and Development Office 13,669 teachers earn a net salary of between 5,000 to 8,000 pesos and 14,658 are paid as low as RD$5,000.

Around 3,830 public school teachers earn between zero and 200 pesos; 6,111 between 200 and 500 pesos, while 1,344 charge between 500 to 1,000 pesos.