Irish second-level teachers are paid well compared with their international counterparts but they often work more hours, the latest statistics from the OECD reveal.
A report published yesterday, Education At a Glance (covering 1999), found Irish second-level teachers earned on average $35,944 a year after 15 years in the profession.
This put Irish teachers 10th out of the 26 countries measured by the OECD. The Irish salary exceeded what is available in Italy, Greece, Sweden, England, Scotland, France and Norway.
Irish secondary teachers were also highly placed when measured on the basis of pay per "teaching hour" - the figures do not take account of pay rises agreed under the current national pay deal.
The best pay for second-level teachers was in Switzerland where, after 15 years, the salary was $62,052. The next best was the Netherlands where the pay was $46,148. The worst rate was $9,335 in Turkey. The average for the OECD was $31,887.
The report also examined the starting salaries of second-level teachers with the average across the OECD at $22,405. Teachers here earned a starting salary of $23,033. The highest in this section was Switzerland at $46,866.
The maximum wage available for an Irish second-level teacher - $40,523 - was also slightly above the OECD average of $39,144. Again Switzerland finished top with a maximum salary of $70,548 a year.
In relation to salary per "teaching hour", Irish teachers at second level were in the top half of the table, earning almost $50 an hour after 15 years in the job.
In relation to primary teachers, wages among the Irish profession also compare favourably internationally. The average salary after 15 years for the OECD was $27,525, with Irish primary teachers on $35,561.
The starting salary for a primary teacher here was $21,940, just above the OECD average. The maximum salary available was $40,141, also several thousand above the OECD average.
The report - widely recognised as the most authoritative collection of international education statistics - was released yesterday in London.
It also examined the amount of teaching hours per year. Irish primary teachers put in 915 hours, more than 100 hours over the OECD average and only exceeded by Scotland, Australia, the US and New Zealand.
Irish secondary teachers taught for 735 hours, also considerably more than the average. The highest number was in American secondary schools, where teachers taught for more than 950 hours.
The report includes figures on the gender composition of the teaching profession internationally.
It found that almost 93 per cent of pre-school teachers were women and 85 per cent of primary teachers were women.
At second level, 56 per cent were women, although the trend was reversed at third level where almost 60 per cent were men.
The Republic does not perform well in terms of overall educational attainment. The report found that 50 per cent of the adult population had not reached senior cycle. Many of these are older people who did not take the Leaving Cert when they were at school. Nowadays more than 80 per cent of pupils sit the exam.