Why Some Teachers Win and Others Wait
In 2014, teachers in the Netherlands who primarily worked in the upper levels of secondary education were rewarded with a salary scale increase to LD (in practice often the highest scale). It was meant as a recognition of the importance and difficulty of that work, and those already in the system benefited. But for those of us who entered later, that recognition never arrived.
But in 2025, that decision still shapes the salaries of teachers in ways that are simply unfair.
I know people who made the switch from professional software developer to become a computer science teacher — what they call a "lateral entrant". They have a master’s degree. They teach in the upper levels of secondary education. They do practically the same work as colleagues who have been in the system longer than me. And yet they're in the lower scale LB.
It’s not about jealousy or competition between people. It’s about principle. Equal work deserves equal pay.
Of course, these teachers asked for arguments. Why would they get paid less? The school leaders have been clear: it’s not about performance or qualifications or anything they're doing wrong. It’s about the "function mix" — a regulation that only allows a fixed percentage of staff in each pay scale. If the spots in LD are full, they’re full. Even if someone checks all the boxes, there’s simply “no room” for them.
And that’s the part that’s hard to accept. This isn’t how it works in other sectors. Coming from a commercial company, it’s been an adjustment to see how rigid and frozen things can be in education. In a private company, when someone earns a promotion, leadership finds a way to make it happen. But in education, even if you’re doing everything right, you might still be stuck — not because of your accomplishments, but because of limits created almost two decades ago.
This policy creates an inequality where people doing the same work are treated differently based on the year they entered the profession. That’s not only unfair — it’s demotivating. Whether or not you want it to, it takes up brain space. It sits in the back of your mind on days when you should be fully focused on your students and their learning.
To be clear, I don’t fully blame individual schools. They’re constrained by budgets and national policies. But that doesn’t mean the problem should be ignored. At some point, someone higher up needs to take responsibility for fixing a system that doesn't work. Because if we keep treating lateral entrants — or any teachers — as second-class, we’re going to lose good people. And that’s something education really can’t afford, especially in a time where a shortage of teachers is one of the biggest problems in the sector.