Survey: 74 Percent of Honorary Teachers' Salary is Lower than Indonesia's Minimum Wage

Survey: 74 Percent of Honorary Teachers' Salaries are Lower than Indonesia's Minimum Wage

"Dream - Survey conducted by the Institute for Demographic and Poverty Studies (IDEAS) and GREAT Edunesia Dompet Dhuafa revealed that 74 percent of honorary or contract teachers have an income below Rp2 million per month."

Survey: 74 Percent of Honorary Teachers' Salary is Lower than Indonesia's Minimum Wage

IDEAS stated that income below Rp2 million per month is lower than the minimum wage in Indonesia, specifically in Banjarnegara Regency with a UMK of Rp2,038,005.

This survey was conducted in the first week of May 2024 in conjunction with National Education Day. It was conducted online with 403 teacher respondents in 25 provinces, with a composition of 291 respondents from Java Island and 112 respondents from outside Java. The survey respondents consisted of 123 people who are Civil Servant Teachers (Guru PNS), 118 Permanent Foundation Teachers (Guru Tetap Yayasan), 117 Honorary or Contract Teachers (Guru Honorer atau Kontrak), and 45 PPPK Teachers (Guru PPPK).

"The survey revealed that 42 percent of teachers have an income below Rp2 million per month, and 13 percent of them have an income below Rp500 thousand per month,"

Researcher IDEAS, Muhammad Anwar, in a written statement, quoted on Tuesday, May 21, 2024.

Anwar added, if we look deeper into the respondents of honorary and contract teachers, the results show that 74% of them have income below Rp2 million per month, and even 20.5% of them still have income below Rp500 thousand.

"Nominal is still below the lowest 2024 Minimum Wage (UMK) in Indonesia, which is in Banjarnegara Regency with an UMK of Rp2,038,005. This means that even in areas with the lowest cost of living, especially for honorary teachers, they still have to struggle to meet their living needs,"

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Anwar continued that with an average of 3 dependents per family member, 89 percent of teachers feel that the income from teaching is barely enough or insufficient to meet their living needs, only 11 percent claim to have enough and have some left over. "From this survey, it is evident that 55.8 percent of teachers have additional income from other jobs. However, this additional income is not significant, the majority of teachers who have side jobs only earn less than Rp500 thousand," said Anwar.

78.8 Percent of Teachers Are in Debt

The favorite side jobs chosen by teachers are private tutoring or tutoring centers (39.1 percent), trading (29.3 percent), farming (12.8 percent), laboring (4.4 percent), content creation (4 percent), and online motorcycle taxi driver (3.1 percent). The minimal income from their main job as teachers and the additional income from side jobs make borrowing one of the ways to cover their living expenses. It is recorded that 79.8 percent of teachers admit to having debt.

"The teachers admitted to having debts to the Bank/BPR totaling 52.6 percent, to Family or Relatives 19.3 percent, to Savings and Loan Cooperatives 13.7 percent, to Friends or Neighbors 8.7 percent, and to Online Loans 5.2 percent."

"reveal Anwar."

When in a desperate condition due to a 56.5 percent need, teachers admit to having sold or pawned their valuable belongings. The items pawned include Jewelry (38.5 percent), Vehicle Registration Certificate (14 percent), House/Land Certificate (13 percent), Motorcycle (11.4 percent), Wedding Gold (4.3 percent), and Civil Servant Appointment Letter (3.9 percent).

"With the low welfare conditions of teachers, we see the admirable determination of Indonesian teachers, as reflected by 93.5 percent of respondents who expressed their desire to continue serving and imparting knowledge as teachers until retirement, even though the majority of them are far from being well-off," Anwar stated."

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