As part of their indefatigable quest to achieve better working conditions, teachers have staged strikes and resorted to boycotting the correction of official exams. Although their activism has been successful in forcing the government to meet many of their demands, they still deem the benefits they receive as insufficient. Rather than addressing the controversy of whether the Lebanese teachers earn too much or too little considering their skills, efforts and workload, this article will only discuss the evolution of their salaries and grades and the draft pay scale referred recently to Parliament for revision and ratification.

Number of Teachers

The pre-university education sector is the second largest public sector in the Lebanese state after the military. If we add private sector teachers to the equation, the education sector becomes the leading labor sector with around 91 000 teachers, a number equal or slightly superior to that of the military personnel. Teachers in Lebanon are distributed as follows:

• Public schools: 39 604 teachers
• Free private schools: 6 826 teachers
• Private schools: 44 493 teachers

Salaries in 1991

Law No. 108 raised on November 7, 1991 the minimum wage to LBP 75 000 and adopted a pay scale for state employees, including teachers, to be considered effective as of January 1, 1991 as illustrated in the following Table 1. The salary was hiked by 129% at the lowest step level and by 221% at the highest one.

Source: Law No. 108

Law No. 588 and its Amendments

Law No. 588 was issued on August 26, 1996 and amended the pay scale of the teachers, excluding all other state employees.

According to this law, the public teachers’ pay increased, starting January 1, 1996 as follows:

• Salaries of Grade 2 teachers at the first (lowest) step level increased from LBP 480 000 to LBP 1 060 000.
• Salaries of Grade 2 teachers at the last (highest) step level increased from LBP 921 600 to LBP 2 470 000.
• Salaries of Grade 3 teachers at the first step level increased from LBP 390 000 to LBP 860 000.
• Salaries of Grade 3 teachers at the last step level increased from LBP 813 600 to LBP 2 070 000.
• Salaries of Grade 4 teachers (1st rank) at the first step level increased from LBP 312 000 to LBP 577 500.
• Salaries of Grade 4 teachers (1st rank) at the last step level increased from LBP 705 600 to LBP 1 430 000.
• Salaries of Grade 4 teachers (2nd rank) at the first step level increased from LBP 250 000 to LBP 440 000.
• Salaries of Grade 4 teachers (2nd rank) at the last step level increased from LBP 597 600 to LBP 1 160 000.

The new pay scale was supposed to include the monthly allowances assigned to the secondary, intermediate and technical and vocational teachers. However, there was no express legal text that clearly stipulated the integration of the respective allowances within the new salary and the law did not compare old salaries to new ones. This has given rise to law No. 593.

Law No. 593

Many pundits criticised law No. 588/96 as being a flagrant legislative scandal. Therefore, law No. 593 emerged on December 28, 1996 cancelling its predecessor and indicating explicitly that the allowances were inclusive in the new salary package. The amended pay scale was to be considered effective as of January 1, 1996 and the cancelled allowances were the following:

• A monthly allocation given to public secondary school teachers as per law No. 53/66 in return for the increased number of teaching hours.
• A raise stipulated by the 1975 draft law enforced by virtue of decree No. 10634.
• Allocations assigned by decree No. 9193/1968 to some of the teaching staff in technical and vocational schools.

Law No. 593 listed the old salary as opposed to the new one without any amendments in the four salary charts organized by grade (Grade2, Grade 3, Grade 4/1st Rank, Grade 4/2nd Rank) as illustrated in the following tables:

Source: Law No. 593

Source: Law No. 593

Source: Law No. 593

Source: Law No. 593

Law No. 661

After the separation of the teachers’ pay scale from that of the other state employees, law No. 661 was issued on July 24, 1997 to merge the four salary charts present in law No. 593 into one chart including 41 steps, with the Step 1 salary standing at LBP 440 000 and Step 41 salary at LBP 2 470 000.

The first step in the unified salary chart is the lowest in Grade 4, while the fifteenth is the lowest in Grade 3 and the twentieth the lowest in Grade 2, as illustrated in the following Table 6.

Source: Law No. 661

Pay Hike Excludes Teachers

The law No. 717 dated November 5, 1998 raised the minimum wage to LBP 300 000 starting January 1, 1999 and amended the pay scale of state employees, but excluded teachers who already profited from the special independent increase they were given in 1996.

Pay Hike Includes Teachers

Since 1999, the salaries of public personnel have remained stable until the issuance of law No. 63 on December 31, 2008, which raised the minimum wage to LBP 500 000 and granted a pay increase of LBP 200 000 to LBP 376 000 to all state employees including teachers. The law was to be considered effective as of May 1, 2008.

16 Exceptional Steps

In a bid to improve their pay, teachers had been granted in the previous few years several exceptional steps. Awarding a year of seniority and 4 steps, the step value being LBP 39 000 at the 1st step level and LBP 73 000 at the 19th step level implied a pay increase of LPB 175 500 and LBP 328 500 respectively per month.

Law No. 244 issued on August 7, 2000 entitled primary and intermediate teachers, as well as Grade 4 vocational teachers, to three exceptional steps, with one given each year from 2001 until 2003. Another 3 steps were given to those in 2009, 2010 and 2011 by virtue of Law No. 102 dated March 6, 2010. Later on April 2, 2012, teachers profited according to Law No. 223 from 4 additional steps and a seniority year in their gradual upgrade. The steps were to be granted two by two in 2010 and 2011.

Secondary teachers and both Grade 2 and Grade 3 vocational teachers were given the same (4 steps + 1 year of seniority) according to law no. 159 issued on August 17, 2011. The steps were also to be given two by two in 2010 and 2011.

The new pay scale draft law has also taken into consideration teachers in the primary, intermediate, secondary and vocational cycles, qualifying them as of April 1, 2013 to six exceptional steps, with one given each year from 2013 until 2018. The following Table 7 illustrates the evolution of teachers’ salaries between 1999 and 2016.

Evolution of teachers’ pay (1999- 2016)/ Amounts in thousands of LBP							Table 7
Step	Basic salary 1/1/1999	Basic salary 1/5/2008	Step value 1/5/2008	Basic salary 1/2/2012	Step value 1/2/2012	Basic salary 1/1/2013	Step value 1/1/2013	Basic salary 1/1/2014	Step value 1/1/2014	Basic salary 1/1/2015	Step value 1/1/2015	Basic salary 1/1/2016	Step value 1/1/2016	Basic salary as per the 1st draft law	Difference between previous and current proposed pay
1	440	640	29	845	31	852	33	858	35	864	37	895	39	900	5-
2	467	669	29	876	31	885	33	893	35	901	37	934	39	940	6-
7	605	814	29	1.031	31	1.050	33	1.068	35	1.086	37	1.129	39	1.140	11-
8	632	843	35	1.062	39	1.083	39	1.103	39	1.123	39	1.168	39	1.180	12-
9	665	878	35	1.101	39	1.122	42	1.142	44	1.162	46	1.207	49	1.220	13-
10	697	913	35	1.14	39	1.164	42	1.186	44	1.208	46	1.256	49	1.270	14-
14	827.50	1.053	35	1.296	39	1.332	42	1.326	44	1.392	46	1.452	49	1.470	18-
15	860	1.09	42	1.335	45	1.374	49	1.406	52	1.438	55	1.501	59	1.520	19-
16	900	1.130	42	1.380	45	1.423	49	1.458	52	1.493	55	1.560	59	1.580	20-
19	1.02	1.256	42	1.515	45	1.570	62	1.614	66	1.658	70	1.737	73	1.760	23-
20	1.06	1.298	53	1.56	58	1.632	62	1.680	66	1.728	70	1.810	73	1.835	25-
21	1.11	1.351	53	1.618	58	1.694	62	1.746	66	1.798	70	1.883	73	1.910	27-
24	1.26	1.510	53	1.792	58	1.880	62	1.944	66	2.008	70	2.102	73	2.135	33-
25	1.31	1.563	63	1.850	68	1.942	70	2.010	71	2.078	72	2.175	73	2.210	35-
26	1.37	1.626	63	1.918	68	2.012	70	2.081	71	2.150	72	2.248	73	2.285	37-
28	1.49	1.752	63	2.054	68	2.152	78	2.223	81	2.294	84	2.39	88	2.435	41-
29	1.55	1.815	74	2.122	74	2.230	78	2.304	81	2.378	84	2.482	88	2.525	43-
32	1.760	2.037	74	2.344	74	2.468	82	2.556	90	2.644	98	2.765	107	2.815	50-
33	1.830	2.111	84	2.418	84	2.550	90	2.646	96	2.742	101	2.872	107	2.925	53-
34	1.910	2.195	84	2.502	84	2.640	90	2.742	96	2.843	101	2.979	107	3.035	56-
37	2.150	2.447	84	2.754	84	2.910	90	3.030	96	3.146	101	3.300	107	& Leave A Comment Comment * Name * E-mail Address * Post a Comment Jawad Adra Events Of The Month November 30 2022 Jawad Adra’s speech in Inauguration of exhibition “Beirut 1840-1918, photographs & Maps” Facts August 16 2021 BDL reserves Editorial August 16 2018 Between Fakhreddine’s millions and the Medicis Editorial May 29 2018 Congratulations on your election victory, distinguished MPs!! App Links