A local research firm, IHS Securities has provided the USD figures of teachers’ salaries from 2016 to 2021.
The figures show that salaries peaked in 2017 when teachers were earning about the US $500. The lowest they earned in USD was in 2019 when their salaries were almost nothing.
From 2020 to now, teachers’ salaries recovered a little with them earning about US $100 in 2020 and now about US $200 in 2021.
According to the research, the teachers’ earnings reflect the earnings of employed people in Zimbabwe.
Commented IHS Securities in the report:
Using a government teacher as a proxy for the formally employed, our observation is that salaries crashed in real terms from a base of circa US$450 in FY16 to below US$50 equivalent in FY19. Against a stabilizing rate and subsequent salary increments we have begun to see a recovery in 2020/21 to around the US$200 mark.
Since 2017, teachers have been earning in local currency (ZWL) and their salaries have been much lower than the comparable salary that they used to be paid in USD.
Teachers in Zimbabwe have been asking the government to revert to 2017 salary levels but have been unsuccessful so far.