Teachers’ salaries and the social status of the teaching profession are related in different ways to students’ expectations of a teaching career, depending on the students' academic proficiency and certain characteristics, namely gender, socio economic status, immigrant background and mathematics performance. Results indicate that boys are more sensitive to salary differences, but there is no evidence that higher salaries would attract high-achieving students into the teaching profession to a greater extent than low-achieving students. Education systems could, therefore, do more to encourage and support the pursuit of a teaching career among all motivated students.