Minimum Salary for Teachers to Increase to 21,000 Hryvnias in 2026
In Ukraine, a significant increase in the minimum salary for teachers is planned for 2026. According to the head of the Financial Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Danilo Hetmantsev, the minimum salary for educators will be at least 21,000 hryvnias per month. Currently, education workers receive one of the lowest salaries among all sectors of the economy.
This is reported by AgroReview
Current Salary Situation in the Education Sector
According to data from the State Statistics Service, educators currently earn an average salary of 16,984 hryvnias. Library, museum, and archive workers have even lower incomes, averaging 14,531 hryvnias, as do representatives of creative professions and the entertainment sector, who earn about 14,809 hryvnias per month. It is worth noting that these amounts are stated before the deduction of mandatory taxes: personal income tax (18%) and military tax (5%).
“The minimum salary will be at least 21,000 hryvnias. This is one of the reasons why we had to support the Budget-2026,” said Hetmantsev.
Funding Issues and Salary Increase Prospects
During the Hour of Questions to the Government in the Verkhovna Rada, Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyi emphasized the problems with ensuring decent pay for workers in preschool and extracurricular education, as well as for instructors of specialized subjects and vocational training masters in vocational education institutions and colleges. He stressed that these categories of educators fall under the jurisdiction of local government bodies.
According to Lisovyi, the Ministry of Education and Science, together with communities, is seeking ways to increase salaries through additional revenues from personal income tax (PIT). The total PIT revenues in communities amount to 17 billion hryvnias, with an additional 6.5 billion expected as a result of the planned increase for the education sector. The Minister highlighted the importance of directing these funds specifically to those educational levels that are financed from local budgets.
Oksen Lisovyi also pointed out the specifics of frontline regions, where additional financial resources may be insufficient for salary increases. He noted that the recently adopted Law on Preschool Education grants communities the right to independently set salary levels outside the tariff grid, taking into account their own financial capabilities.