Following Prime Minister’s statements about teachers’ minimum salary

Responding to the question about giving bonuses to teachers and raising their salaries during a Facebook live on April 6, PM Nikol Pashinyan noted that teachers will now receive a minimum salary of 108,000 AMD.

“I also want to remind that starting from January 1, 2020, minimum salaries of teachers have increased to 108,000 AMD, and since September, 2019, teachers’ wages had increased by about 10 percent” the Prime Minister announced.

However, Nikol Pashinyan’s statement is manipulative. This issue has been a subject of speculations by various high-ranking officials a number of times. The Fact Investigation Platform also addressed this issue earlier.

Thus, the claim that teachers’ salaries have increased by 10% since September 2019 is true. But the next statement that Pashinyan made about teachers’ minimum salaries of 108,000 AMD is controversial. The thing is that 108,000 AMD is the minimum salary for a full-time employment. Meanwhile, less than 40% of teachers working in general education institutions in Armenia are employed full-time. The vast majority of teachers receive salaries equivalent to 0.25 to 0.75 rates. So according to the 2019 data, there are 31,371 teachers working in the schools of republic. According to the data provided to us by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, only 11,800 teachers work full time. Therefore, only a part of the teachers receive the established minimum salary of 108.000 AMD.

The increase in rates has also affected the amount of salaries of teachers working less than full-time, but yet their minimum salary has not become 108.000AMD.

It should also be reminded that before raising salaries Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Arayik Harutyunyan had mentioned that starting from January 1, 2020, there would be no teacher who would be paid less than 108,000AMD, but lately he changed his wording, saying that a teacher’s minimum salary for a full-time employment becomes 108,000 AMD.

Thus, Pashinyan’s statement that the minimum salary has increased to 108,000 AMD is manipulative, as only teachers working full time are paid this amount.

Ani Avetisyan