Salaries of civil servants deepen inequality, Rama with a salary 25.4 times higher than the average pension

On May 25, the Assembly of Albania approved the law that determines the new salaries for high state officials, but with some changes. In the Economy Committee, during the review of the law "On Salaries, Remunerations and Structures of Independent Constitutional Institutions and other independent Institutions, created by law", there were some changes.

In the initial draft law deposited, it was not foreseen to increase the salaries of the government officials, that is, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Assembly and the deputy ministers.

Equally, no increases were foreseen for the salaries of deputies. But with a majority of votes, the Economy and Finance Commission decided that the salaries of these officials should be increased and even the percentage increase was even higher than that of the President.

According to Open Data data, the salary of the President of the Republic, which is determined in the State Budget Law, increases from 257,000 ALL to 425,000 ALL, an increase equal to 65.4%. The salary of the Prime Minister and Speaker of the Assembly is 393,125 ALL, from 228,730 ALL, an increase of 71.9%.

The salaries of ministers have increased by 82.4%, respectively from 174,760 ALL to 318,750 ALL. Deputies are the ones who benefit from the highest percentage increase, namely 98%, from 156,770 ALL to 310,250 ALL.

Increases were also experienced by other officials, where the biggest increase is noted for the Inspector General of the High Inspectorate of Declaration and Control of Assets and Conflict of Interest, respectively by 70.2%, from 174,760 ALL to 297,500 ALL.

Most of these employees received symbolic increases at or below inflation.

With the new law, the prime minister's salary becomes 25.4 times higher than the average pension for 2022. Likewise, a nine-year teacher with a master's degree has a gross salary 6 times lower than the prime minister's. A nurse's salary is 5.8 times lower than the new salary of the prime minister of the republic.

In other words, an Albanian pensioner with an average pension receives only 3.9% of the gross salary of the prime minister of the country.

Likewise, specialist doctors who benefited from a salary increase of 50,000 in April, it turns out that only 38.3% of the prime minister's salary or 2.6 times less benefited.

The deepening of inequality is clearly seen when analyzing the salary ratio before and after their change.

A pensioner before the prime minister's salary was changed had a pension amount 14.8 times lower than that of the prime minister, but now it turns out to be 25.4 times lower.

A police inspector's salary before April 2023 was about 4 times lower than that of the prime minister, and after April 2023 it is 6.4 times lower.

The same happens with all salaries of budget employees. The ratio of their salaries to the prime minister's salary has decreased after April 2023, even though the salary in absolute value has increased for both parties.