Teacher Salary in Norway (Lærer) 2026

This calculator compares a teacher's (lærer) pay in Norway with the official statistics from Statistics Norway (SSB) for primary and lower secondary school teachers, upper secondary teachers and vocational teachers, and with the guaranteed minimum pay in the municipal collective agreement. Enter your fixed monthly pay, any extras and your position size. Part-time pay is converted to a full-time equivalent, because the SSB figures are for full-time employees. All figures are gross monthly pay in NOK unless stated otherwise.

What teachers earn in Norway

SSB measures monthly pay in November each year. Monthly pay means the agreed salary plus irregular allowances and bonuses, without overtime. In 2025 the median for primary and lower secondary teachers was NOK 59,010, up 3.5% on the year before. The median for upper secondary teachers was NOK 62,140 and for all occupations NOK 57,970. About 63,671 full-time jobs stand behind the primary school figure, so it is a good picture of what teachers actually earn. SSB groups people by the job they do, not by their degree, so a lektor with a master's degree who teaches lower secondary school may well be counted as a primary and lower secondary teacher. Newly qualified teachers and experienced ones sit in the same group, which is why the spread inside it is wide.

How pay is set: the KS agreement

Teachers in municipal schools are covered by a collective agreement (tariffavtale) between the municipalities' employers' organisation KS and the unions. The central agreement is the Main Collective Agreement (Hovedtariffavtalen, HTA), which runs for 2026 to 2028 with an interim settlement in 2027. It guarantees a minimum annual salary for each position code and number of years of seniority, and the employer then negotiates pay locally, so most teachers earn more than the minimum. Oslo municipality has its own agreement and private schools follow other agreements, so the table below applies to the KS area only.

Minimum pay for teachers in the municipalities from 1 May 2026

Which minimum applies depends on your position code, which follows your education. To be placed in one of these codes you need completed subject and teacher education, and a practical pedagogical education (PPU) counts as at least 30 credits. The five codes for teaching staff are:

The guaranteed lowest annual salary at a 100% position for each code and step of seniority is:

The teacher education for primary and lower secondary school is a five-year programme leading to a master's degree and the title lektor, in two tracks: grades 1 to 7 and grades 5 to 10. There is also a route through a practical pedagogical education (PPU) after another degree. If you take further education that lifts you above the requirements of your code, you can move up to a higher code, which is often the quickest way to a higher minimum.

Worked example

An adjunkt with further education (code 7963) works in a municipal school with 10 years of seniority, in a 80% position, with NOK 46,000 in fixed pay a month. The calculator gives:

Teacher pay after tax

The table taxes the SSB monthly pay as if it were earned all year. Your employer withholds tax from each payslip using a tax table, so see the Norway tax table calculator for how a normal month, the summer month and December differ, and the Norway income tax calculator for how yearly tax is calculated.

Women, men and pay growth

If you have just moved to Norway

• Titles mislead. In Norwegian schools lektor is a teacher with a master's degree, not a university lecturer, and adjunkt is a teacher with four years of approved education. Ask your employer which position code you have been given, because that decides your guaranteed minimum.
• Ask what seniority (lønnsansiennitet) you were credited with when you were hired. Relevant earlier work counts, and the amount is often stated in the employment contract.
• Your employer withholds tax from every payslip using your tax deduction card (skattekort). With table withholding there is normally no tax withheld in one month in the summer and half in November or December. If you have no tax deduction card you do not get that reduction.
• Pay in private schools and in Oslo follows other agreements. For how holiday pay works, see the Norway holiday pay calculator, and for pension the Norway pension calculator.

Nurses also work under the KS agreement in the municipalities: see the nurse salary calculator.

What this calculator does not cover

It does not cover Oslo municipality, private schools or universities, and it does not calculate overtime, extra duties or local pay negotiations. It cannot tell which position code or seniority your employer should give you. It does not include pension or holiday pay, and the tax estimate uses standard deductions only for a person taxed at the ordinary rate. The SSB figures describe all full-time teachers in 2025, so your own pay compared with them is a guide, not a verdict on what you should earn.