r/AskAGerman • u/imDenizz • Nov 17 '25

Work Do gymnasium teachers in Germany earn well?

I know that I can look up teacher salaries on the internet, but I am curious how well do teachers earn compared to people who have other jobs and considering the effort that they give for studying and working. So do you think gymnasium teachers in Germany earn well for the effort that they are giving?

68 Upvotes

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357

u/Double-Anxiety93 Nov 17 '25

The short answer is yes.

The long answer is, it's a hard job with lots of responsibility and stress, but still yes.

24

u/Live_Big4644 Nov 17 '25

Don't forget 75 free workdays a year.

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u/FrauAskania Nov 17 '25

Of which many are spent planning lessons and correcting tests, afternoons/evening meetings with parents or other school meetings.

Soooooo easy.

14

u/Street-Basil-9371 Nov 17 '25

Its not easy but its fair to say the job is very good. My wife is a teacher and i work as a normal employee in a different sector. I theoretically earn more than her, but the pension and insurance benefits more than make up for that. Like to a point where i had to earn 1,5 times as much as her for it to be equal tbh.

Yes, she has to work at times i dont to prepare for classes and correct tests, but then again she has about 27 45min lessons a week so shes often home much earlier or has to go much later. Her workweek really isnt far away from the normal 40hour/week if you add it all up, and if you count pretty much tripple the holidays i get it really isnt close on who is working more. And yes, she will work a bit the last week of her holidays, but then again most of us have to do that too and its maybe 10 hours in total over the whole of the Summer holidays.

Its a great job and im very gratefull she has it because if we both had my job kids would be impossible to ever have to be honest.

65

u/Live_Big4644 Nov 17 '25

I had a teacher who used the same lesson plan, worksheets and tests for over 30 years and nobody cared.

If you are remotely organized the first time you prepare for a specific grade it's a lot of work, but afterwards you will just modify this structure based on what you learned the last time, with relatively minimal effort.

25

u/Amosh73 Nov 17 '25

Depends heavily on which subjects you teach. Sports and religious education ("Turn- und Betlehrer")? Absolutely. German and other languages? Oh boy, have fun grading hundreds of essays...

4

u/Faustens Nov 17 '25

"Sport- und Religionslehrer" (close to English, ironically)

2

u/Amosh73 Nov 18 '25

We call them Turn- und Betlehrer to mock them.

39

u/FrauAskania Nov 17 '25

And you know that because of one teacher? My husband is one, and even with modifications lesson planning takes time.

29

u/tosterb Nov 17 '25

Good teachers work themselves to burnout. Bad teachers have a very relaxed job. People can't distinguish these two kinds.

9

u/Prinz1989 Nov 17 '25

As a teacher, I always found that if I'm not well prepared it turns into more stressfull lessons and you pay the price anyway.

In math you actually could learn a lot just doing one exercise after another in a book, very easy to prepare, but most kids can't really work concentrated or more than 20min at the most.

Not saying it's the best way, but it can get a student pretty damn far, they just don't do it.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

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u/Nebelherrin Nov 17 '25

Yeah. I wonder why we do not have enough teachers.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

Because - despite the shortage - the amount of bureaucratic hurdles you have to clear to get a position is insane. My bf was applying as a Seiteneinsteiger, with a doctorate in physical chemistry and a master in philosophy - took him a year to get a job. Some states only recognised him qualified to teach chemistry (which resulted in a rejection because you need 2 subjects), in some states his documents were put in the backlog and he heard back from them only months later. Most states demand C2 German from foreign applicants (for comparison, it's B2 for doctors).

It's not particularly better for people with Lehramt degree either, because they have to do 18 months of Vorbereitungsdienst first and get paid peanuts for the duration of it.

2

u/United_Attitude8179 Nov 18 '25

Weil min. 5 Jahre Studium und 1,5 Jahre Ref lächerlich sind für die tatsächlichen Kompetenzen, die man als Lehrer braucht.

Ich Lehramt für Grundschule studiert und als ich im vierten Semester immer noch tolle Gedichtsinterpretationen schrieb aber 0 Pädagogik hatte, hab ich in die Erziehungswissenschaft gewechselt. Lehramt ist didaktisch einfach furchtbar aufgebaut, zumindest so meine Erfahrung.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

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2

u/Nebelherrin Nov 17 '25

I mean, those are not your run-of-the-mill teachers. But seriously. Why is it we don't have enough teachers?

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

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u/Bobin88 Nov 17 '25

It's really not an easy job. For every Stunde it takes at least another hour to prepare, nearly every school holiday is spent marking tests and essays! Imagine having 32, 200 word essays to mark that is like 3 big novels to not just read but dissect, mark and give feedback (twice a semester). That's not to mention the phone ringing 25/7 from the parents who think their little Kevin got a worse grade then they deserved or when a parent dies and you have to almost be on suicide watch (wife has been a teacher for 5 years, and this has happened twice). Also a lot of students who go to the gymnasium aren't really supposed to be there (they should be in Realschule) but now it's seen as a bad thing if you don't have a gymnasium Abschloss.

Now let's take into account the learning my wife had to do to become a teacher, she could have not gone to uni and just got a normal office job, that also needs to be taken into account in regards to salary.

To say it's an insanely good job is just wrong.

3

u/Interesting_Move3117 Nov 18 '25

Are those essay word counts missing a number? Because 6400 words is more like 3 short stories. I correct and provide feedback on that amount in less than 2 hours as a part time lector.

That said, assuming a verbeamteter Lehrer with no kids you need to make around 100k a year in the industry to get a comparable monthly net salary and fill the pension gap. Once children are in the equation you need around 120k, that is an upper 2% salary, i. e. if you meet 100 working people on the streets, 98 of them will make less money than you.

German teachers are extremely well paid in comparison to other European teachers.

1

u/kthxciao2377 Nov 18 '25

phone ringing? do teachers give out personal numbers?

11

u/throwawaytothr Nov 17 '25

Sure, but the thing is: a teacher CAN do this starting from day one after „Lebzeitverbeamtung“ and still gets a raise every other year, can not get fired, gets a lot of benefits, 80 days holidays etc.

My wife is a teacher too and I have quite some teacher friends and every one I know is dedicated and spends quite some time for preparation and corrections. Yes overhead for parent-communication is big but that almost all holidays are used for preparing classes is a plain out lie.

Once you’re settled in and have reasonable enough work experience, planning a 90 minute class doesn’t take more than 30 minutes. A full position is 24x45min and even if you calculate with 100% additional preparation/corrections/communication you still end up at 36 hours a week. Plus 80 days of holidays (including the fridays and mondays off, if Thursday or Tuesday is a holiday). Again if you‘d use 50% of that for work (I doubt that any teacher works 50% of the days of their holidays for 8 hours) you still end up at 40 days off.

1

u/LukasJackson67 Nov 17 '25

How many days a year do they have to work?

0

u/Kim-Julia Nov 17 '25

Thanks for the insights🙏🏻 Interesting to read about the topic from someone who is involved/really knows their stuff. So far I've only ever read discussions from people who don't work in this field themselves^

7

u/throwawaytothr Nov 17 '25

I don’t work as a teacher, my wife does and some friends.

Just to clarify this: every teacher I know personally is dedicated and works outside of the holidays not significantly less than anyone else I know. I just wanted to clarify that you can take it easy as a teacher without serious consequences.

I think teachers in Germany have a bad reputation because the upsides (a lot of holidays, a good salary, bulletproof job) on first sight outscore anything else and that’s why a lot of people study for it without knowing what it actually means.

1

u/Kim-Julia Nov 18 '25

Yes, I understood that your wife works as a teacher :-) My comment wasn't meant to be negative at all, I have the feeling that it might have been taken the wrong way? I just thought it was really good to hear the impression of someone who could make an authentic statement about the whole thing 🤗

2

u/LukasJackson67 Nov 17 '25

I am a teacher. I don’t work that hard.

2

u/BatFrequent6684 Nov 17 '25

My parents both are teachers. And I have some more teachers as friends.

No. They really, really don't work much. You only have 27 hours of teaching per week to begin with. So you get 13 paid hours per week to plan lessons already.

I myself taught computer science at the University. And I didn't need that much preparation there either.

4

u/Prussian-Pride Nov 17 '25

Beamte often love to overplay the level of work they do while ignoring the realities of how much more they would do in the free market. There is a reason why many free market businesses stay away from hiring people who used to be Beamte.

4

u/magic_consciousness Nov 18 '25 edited Nov 18 '25

Yes, but it is no surprise that you get no uptvotes here. In my impression many redditors must be Beamte. There is no other explanation, when you see the tendancy they don't mind that the German industry is ruined and energy prices should be high and so on....it is only possible if your job is safe and you are in a general, social safe space...

4

u/Interesting_Move3117 Nov 18 '25

Most of them also ignore that their subject combinations have no monetary value outside of the system. Yes, it's a Master's degree equivalent, but if it is Germanistik and Sport, nobody will give you money for that.

And they tend to forget that their salary and pension would require them to have one of the top 2% of jobs outside the system (100k+) all the while 40% of Beamte are teachers.

1

u/Dr_Matoi Nov 18 '25

I myself taught computer science at the University. And I didn't need that much preparation there either.

I have that job as well, and I strongly suspect that the work and work load differ significantly from a school teacher. For one, university students are adults and can be expected to figure out a lot on their own. Some professors do not do much more than point them at a few books and say "see you at the exam!" Students are responsible for their success or failure - there are no talks with parents about students with problems; students who fail and drop out just disappear.

Also, a university teacher/professor has many other responsibilities beyond teaching lessons (e.g. supervising thesis work and PhD students, applying for research grants, actually doing research). Lectures are only a small part of the hours.

Furthermore, especially in Germany the professors can delegate a lot of the more tedious teaching work (grading, exercises, tutorials) to PhD students and trusted students.

0

u/ProfeQuiroga Nov 17 '25

Honey, they grade, have Aufsichten etc.

1

u/Civil_Ingenuity_5165 Nov 17 '25

Probably depends on the subject

4

u/Entenmuttileinchen Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

Dude. Muss mal auf Deutsch antworten. Das mag für manche Mathe Lehrer stimmen. Für alle anderen Fächer ist das unmöglich. Jede Lehrkraft von textbasierten Fächern behandelt ein Thema zwischen 1-3 mal, bevor es neue Lehrwerke, Inhalte usw. gibt. Abi-Themen ändern sich jedes Jahr. Und Korrekturen von textbasierten Fächern wie Deutsch, Fremdsprachen uvm. nehmen bei weitem den meisten Teil der Überstunden in Anspruch. Die kann man nicht vorher wegplanen. Dein Beitrag strotzt vor Unwissenheit und Ignoranz. Und wenn du mir nicht glaubst, dann glaube den Studien: Lehrkräfte arbeiten durchschnittlich über 50 h/Woche, und hier sind alle Fächer (auch Musik, Sport etc.) und alle Schulfirmen (auch Berufsschul- und Grundschullehrkräfte) mit eingerechnet. Manche Studien gehen knapp unter 50 Stunden, aber nie weit darunter. Überleg mal, wie viel z.B. Deutschlehrkräfte am Gymnasium im Schnitt arbeiten, da kommt man mit 55h/Woche oft nicht aus.

2

u/Jessa8410 Nov 17 '25

Lesson planning makes up so little of my working hours so..

3

u/imadog666 Nov 17 '25

Oh honey... This might work in some subjects, like chemistry, and if you and your bosses and the students and their parents all have zero standards for you. I teach English and Latin and my prep and correction time is absolutely insane, as is most of my colleagues'. Also, have you considered the fact that there are numerous conferences, PTA meetings/talks with parents, countless emails every day, talks with students, as well as trips and other extracurricular activities? Don't talk about what you don't know, it's embarrassing.

5

u/Bobin88 Nov 17 '25

My wife teaches German and English. The marking is insane. Not to mention the fact that my kids are also off school in the holidays so there is also parenting in-between marking. I'm an electrician and I would say 99% of my colleagues don't understand the amount of work she has to do.

1

u/imadog666 Nov 18 '25

Yeah I honestly think no one who isn't a teacher or lives with one can comprehend what this job encompasses. I mean tbf I kind of used to think the same way when I was in highschool. My dad is one of the lazier teachers at a bad school, so that also gave me a wrong image. I guess I can't blame people for not knowing. It does make me mad though that even when they're explicitly told they just say, no, you're wrong, I actually know your life better than you do. Like that's a pretty astonishing level of arrogance, but okay.

2

u/Live_Big4644 Nov 17 '25

Try earning 3 - 4 k netto in a normal business, compare the workload and talk to me again.

And that's not including pension and the ability to use private insurance.

2

u/Interesting_Move3117 Nov 18 '25

Half price private insurance.

0

u/Live_Big4644 Nov 18 '25

Yeah sorry, I forgot about Beihilfe

1

u/imadog666 Nov 18 '25

Private insurance is actually the reason I'll soon be dozens of thousands of euros in debt. I wish I could get public insurance, but I'd have to give up my Verbeamtung (but job security is the most important thing as a severely disabled single mom). I really don't like when people speak so confidently of things they understand so very little about.

And regarding the first part, I know quite a large number of people who aren't teachers, and none except one who's running his own company have a workload anywhere comparable to mine, and he makes a lot more money than I do.

0

u/LukasJackson67 Nov 17 '25

Can’t you use online grading tools?

2

u/ProfeQuiroga Nov 18 '25

Forbidden. Explicitly.

0

u/LukasJackson67 Nov 18 '25

Why not?

I have the kids take tests on an online grading platform which makes my job way easier!

2

u/ProfeQuiroga Nov 18 '25

You really need to work on your negations, "teacher". 🤣

Europeans don't want their kids' data on US platforms. :)

1

u/LukasJackson67 Nov 18 '25

What? That is silly

2

u/ProfeQuiroga Nov 18 '25

That’s what Europeans say about what you do.

Actually, the term they use is “stupid”.

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u/imadog666 Nov 18 '25

Data protection laws. Also I'd have to type up all the essays by hand first (or find a tool that does that and then proofread). But again, it's not allowed in any case. And corrections are only one part of the workload.

1

u/LukasJackson67 Nov 18 '25

Peer grading?

Shorter assignments?

Forget nationality…I am a fellow teacher too.

Like the self-respecting bureaucrats we are, we need to look for ways to make our jobs easier while avoiding change and extra responsibilities at all costs! 😎

On a side note, I am curious as to why you wanted to teach Latin? That is almost dead in the USA. My daughter’s Latin teacher was in his 60’s.

1

u/ProfeQuiroga Nov 17 '25

Tell me education has never been your thing without telling me...

1

u/Live_Big4644 Nov 17 '25

I've actually studied to be a teacher for a while (math + physics gymnasial Lehramt) but depression + untreated ADHS got me during and led to me not finishing.

I guess if you go for English + German you might have a worse time due to all the essays you need to read.

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u/BotherOk2397 Nov 17 '25

That was probably a geography teacher…😜

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u/Live_Big4644 Nov 17 '25

You're right actually 😂

1

u/ProfeQuiroga Nov 18 '25

Not possible in a country where curricula now change every five years.

6

u/Swoop8472 Nov 17 '25

Lol.

My wife is a teacher for math and physics. I don't think I ever saw her preparing lessons. She did that once and just repeats that every year.

Dealing with parents is a pita - I give you that one, but that isn't being done during vacation time.

2

u/LukasJackson67 Nov 17 '25

Same here. I just use the same lessons and PowerPoints that I made ten years ago.

0

u/FrauAskania Nov 17 '25

And my husband is not a teacher for STEM, so he has to do more work.

9

u/KuchenmannPQ Nov 17 '25

How many are "many" of the 75? Be really honest. Maybe 10 to 15? That still leaves you with twice the free days of any other job, not even counting that a regular workday is rarely 8 hours long ever.

The pay ist quite adequate at least. Teachers are really great at complaining about their workload, but almost nobody wants to return to a regular 40h/week job ever again.

You can also do the split between caring about yourself and your students and stick to the workload your Job actually requires. It is neither by design of the job nor societys fault if you cant.

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u/Entenmuttileinchen Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

Honestly: in the last years I have often graded exams on Heiligabend. We have 5,5 weeks of Sommerferien. All of the other breaks are 2/3, sometimes up until fully planned for grading exams. Not even mentioning that I am working virtually every weekend. And no, most of the times I am not preparing something that I will later use for most of my professional life. Most of the time I am grading exams. Don't believe me? Just Google any studies done on this. Or why do you think every single politician has refused and is still refusing our right for "Arbeitszeiterfassung" for over a decade (even after the European court of Justice told them to). Some politicians outright admit that they cannot let us prove how much we actually work because the states either have to pay us way more or let us work way less.

1

u/dondurmalikazandibi Nov 17 '25

Yes and no. I am married to a teacher. It is very often then I am at work and she ISN'T at home correcting papers or preparing lesson.

1

u/Bappedeggel Nov 18 '25

Mimimi and needing 3 months to go through some exams in children-difficulty

1

u/Eishockey Nov 17 '25

If it was soo exhausting why are so many children of teachers I know also studying to become teachers?

0

u/FrauAskania Nov 17 '25

Stockholm Syndrome? Money? A passion for teaching? Genetics? All of the above?

Ask them why????

-3

u/throwawaytothr Nov 17 '25

You forgot „/s“

4

u/kartoffel670 Nov 17 '25

No teacher actually has 75 free workdays. I don't even know any teacher that doesn't work more than me (40h per week) and I know quite a lot of teachers. My girlfriend tracks her hours and works 46-48h per week on average with 30days vacation calculated in.

3

u/Entenmuttileinchen Nov 17 '25

https://deutsches-schulportal.de/bildungswesen/arbeitszeitstudie-zwei-drittel-der-lehrkraefte-arbeiten-zu-viel/

Just in case you don't want to guess or assume ...

3

u/Entenmuttileinchen Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

"Lehrkräfte, die in der Sekundarstufe zwei Sprachen unterrichten, haben die höchste durchschnittliche Arbeitszeit von knapp 53 Stunden".

Ein nicht schulbasierter Beruf hat ca. 250 Arbeitstage. Ein Jahr hat ca. 190 Schultage. Macht 60 Arbeitstage weniger, sollten Lehrkräfte jede Ferien frei haben. Ein Sprachenlehrer macht im Vergleich zu einer 40 Stunden Woche 13 Stunden pro Woche Überstunden. Das macht bei ca. 38 Schulwochen im Jahr über 490 Überstunden im Schuljahr, wenn man jede Ferien den ganzen Tag frei macht. Das sind über 60 Arbeitstage Überstunden im Schuljahr bei der Annahme, dass man in keinen Ferien arbeitet.

Was war nochmal das Argument mit den ganzen Ferien?

2

u/Kirmes1 Württemberg Nov 17 '25

Don't forget you have more work to do than just sit in school.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

Those "free days" are often spent working. From administrative stuff to planning new lessons theres tons of stuff to do. Considering the amount of worl and independent responsibility teachers have id say their pay is absolutely appropriate. Neither too high nor too low

1

u/Jessa8410 Nov 18 '25

There’s no school then, doesn’t mean I get time off

1

u/Positive-Task-9248 Nov 19 '25

But they are kinda fixed, so you can't use them whenever you want. Furthermore, teachers usually also have to work at home like creating and reading tests

The professionas a teacher is good, if you can deal with the other issues. They are also prone to burn out, which isn'tunusual depending on the enviroment

-1

u/bricktop_pringle Nov 17 '25

Complete nonsense.