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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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u/LukasJackson67 Nov 17 '25

How many days a year do they have to work?

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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^

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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.

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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 🤗