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Teacher pay in South Africa: How attractive is the teaching profession?

Author

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  • Paula Armstrong

    (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch)

Abstract

Educational quality is a challenged facing the South African schooling system. It is widely acknowledged that teachers play a central role in the quality of education received by students, and that the quality of teachers is largely dependent on the wage they are offered in the teaching profession. This paper investigates the state of teacher pay in the South African labour market by comparing the remuneration received by teachers with that received by their non-teaching counterparts. Remuneration is compared across educational attainment levels, years of experience and across age groups. A Lemieux Decomposition is used to determine what the distribution of teacher wages would look like if teachers were remunerated according to the same structure as non-teachers. It is found that the teaching profession is relatively unattractive to individuals at the top end of the skills distribution in the South African labour market.

Suggested Citation

  • Paula Armstrong, 2009. "Teacher pay in South Africa: How attractive is the teaching profession?," Working Papers 04/2009, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers76
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    File URL: https://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2009/wp042009/wp-04-2009.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2009
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Hendrik van Broekhuizen, 2015. "Teacher Supply in South Africa: A Focus on Initial Teacher Education Graduate Production," Working Papers 07/2015, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Amina Ebrahim & Kezia Lilenstein, 2019. "Gender and the South African labour market: Policy relevant research possibilities using South African tax data," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-31, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Robert Cameron & Vinothan Naidoo, 2016. "When a ‘ruling alliance’ and public sector governance meet: Managing for performance in South African basic education," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-060-16, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    4. Gabrielle Wills, 2015. "A profile of the labour market for school principals in South Africa: Evidence to inform policy," Working Papers 12/2015, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Wage differentials by occupations; Wage level and structure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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