Under the draft provisions, the salaries of government ministers and parliamentary secretaries will be tied to the average wage of public sector workers, and calculated by using a special coefficient.
The salaries of ministers and parliamentary secretaries will not be frozen, but will be revised annually following an official report by the Central Statistics Office.
Under the proposed amendments, the next revision of ministers and parliamentary secretaries' salaries is planned for 2009, which means that next year their salaries will not be raised.
The proposal triggered a debate at the government meeting on Nov. 13.
Defense Minister Atis Slakteris tried to dissuade his colleagues from deciding the issue and urged them to leave the decision to the next government.
Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis, meanwhile, pointed out that this was a "politically sensitive" issue at a time when the government is implementing austerity measures and telling the rest of the population not to expect large pay rises.
But Kalvitis defended the right of government ministers to see their pay increase, saying: "It is clear that a pay increase is necessary, because ministers receive less than top civil servants and MPs," Kalvitis said.
He added that the relatively small salaries on offer can create problems in attracting high-fliers to ministerial posts when they can earn much more money in the private sector.
Ministers' salaries are calculated by multiplying the past year's average wage of public sector employees by eight. The coefficient used for calculating the prime minister's salary is 8.9. At present the prime minister's monthly salary is about 2,162 lats (3,000 euros), while a ministerial salary is 1,944 lats (2,791 euros).
Please enter your username and password.
2026 © The Baltic Times /Cookies Policy Privacy Policy
