site.btaWhen 2025 Budget Gets Adopted, Teachers' Salaries Could Be Raised Retroactively as of January 1

The lack of a budget for 2025 means that all remunerations are at their 2024 level and everything said in the last months about an increase of teachers' salaries is clearly being postponed until a decision is taken on a new state budget, Diyan Stamatov commented for BTA on Wednesday. He is Chairperson of the Union of Managers in the Public Education System and Principal of the Academician Mihail Arnaudov 119th Secondary School in Sofia. In his words, the light at the end of the tunnel lies in Wednesday's proposed government, the election of which would lead to the fast adoption of the 2025 state budget. That would allow for an increase of teachers' salaries retroactively as of January 1, 2025, he noted, expressing the hope that the promises made in the last five months for a 15% to 16% pay rise would be kept.

"The increase of teachers' salaries was planned to be around 14.5%, similar to the rise of the minimum working wage. At present, however, that wage is practically higher, and a teacher's salary is quite similar, which currently makes this profession extremely unattractive due to the low pay," Stamatov commented. The minimum wage of a teacher is BGN 1,853, while that for the country is BGN 1,077 as of January 1, 2025, Stamatov specified.

Nearly 60% of the personnel at kindergartens work for a minimum wage, and that includes everyone who does not hold a teaching position, he noted.

There has not been a wave of teachers quitting yet, but should this small difference in the working wage remain, that will happen soon. Many teachers are young people who have a different way of thinking; they do not have the patience for years of work experience to obtain a higher salary, Stamatov argued. Solving this issue is related to the adoption of a state budget for 2025, guaranteeing the resources for the minimum working wage and guaranteeing the pay rise promised by all political forces.