The Department of Education wants to maintain compensatory allowances for teachers and at the same time follow up on further salary growth. In an end-of-year interview for TASR, Minister of Education Tomáš Drucker (Voice-SD) stated this, saying that even experts at the global education forum OECD evaluated this step as correct.
As he pointed out, there are regions in Slovakia where the same nominal wage does not mean the same level of quality of life. “If you have only 60 percent of the costs for the same apartment somewhere else, then you can afford to buy more than the one who has it more expensive,” zoomed in. According to him, compensatory contributions help especially in locations such as Bratislava, Trnava, Košice, where the cost of living is much higher, as they can afford to buy less for the same salary.
He reminded that from January 2026, the salaries of all employees in education will increase by another seven percent. The same increase also applied from September 2025, despite the consolidation of public finances. According to the minister, the government and the Ministry of Education showed that they care about education.
At the same time, Drucker emphasized that the pace of change needs to be maintained in order for Slovakia to approach a salary level comparable to that of university-educated people. According to him, this is a chance to maintain the quality of education and make the teaching profession more attractive. “Education is the only area in Slovakia that can bring economic growth. It therefore makes sense to invest in education also through salary growth,” added the minister.
Next year, according to the minister, the department should come up with a proposal for a payment machine in education. “A compensatory contribution should also be part of it, what will be the rules for its application and also what it should be tied to. We may not be able to hit the target level we need to reach right away, and it will take maybe two to three years, but we want to come up with it,” he said.
