Teachers' salaries are expected to rise even more than announced, with the average 26-percent increase actually turning out to be at least 33 percent, TheMarker has learned.

This week the treasury signed an agreement with the representatives of primary and most junior high school teachers over a number of educational reforms, including the significant salary increases.

However, it turns out that the historic agreement is not the end of the affair: Teachers are expected to enjoy the results of an arbitration ruling in their favor with regard to the erosion of their wages over the years, in relation to the salary scales for engineers. Historically, teachers' salaries have been linked to those of engineers in the civil service.

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According to the arbitrator, teachers have seen their salaries eroded by 6 percent and they deserve this increase in addition to the new reforms. Therefore, veteran teachers will see a 33 percent raise, while new teachers can expect raises of up to 40 percent.

These additional costs have already been included in the estimates of NIS 5-8 billion per year for the reforms, with about NIS 1 billion of this amount to come from efficiency measures taken by the Education Ministry and the rest from new funding by the Finance Ministry.