
The new wage reform further increased inequality this budget year, as workers in the country's basic services, teachers, doctors and nurses and police in the field received only a 7 percent pay rise, while senior government functions, MPs, ministers and deputy ministers benefited from salary increases from 50 to 98 percent according to recent decisions with the salary reform being discussed in the Assembly.
According to the draft law on "Powers to determine salaries" expected to be approved tomorrow in the plenary session, the deputies benefit from the biggest increase by 98 percent, bringing the gross salary to 310,250 ALL from 156,777 ALL which is currently.
After approval by the Assembly, the increase will come into effect from April 1 of this year. The Minister's salary increases by 82 percent, going to 310,250 ALL per month from the current 174,760 ALL.
The salary of the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Assembly suffered an increase of over 72% yesterday, while the highest salary in the country, that of the President who is at the top of the salary hierarchy, reached 425,000 ALL from 257,000 ALL, which is currently a 65% increase.
But on the other hand, the largest body of the administration benefited from April 1 of this year only with a 7 percent increase. Practically, the real increase in their salaries is zero percent since the increase is only an indexation with inflation, which last year was 6.7%.
The net salary of a teacher in 9-year education with 20 years of experience and all the qualifications reached after the increase on April 1 to 59,400 ALL from 567,000 ALL in March.
Nurses also had an increase of only 2,600 ALL per month. A nurse at the Mother Teresa Hospital Center with a master's degree and 20 years of experience receives 56,600 net lek per month from April 1, 2023, up from 540,000 before.
While benefits for 686,923 pensioners and thousands more who are on the economic assistance scheme remain unchanged. The government has planned to index pensions in the fall during October.
In March of this year, a teacher's salary was 32% of a minister's salary, but with the salary reform, a teacher's salary is only 19% of a minister's salary.
The government plans to implement a reform to increase the salary for public administration employees by 900 euros in the next two years, but it seems that the averaging will come from the salaries of the high levels, while the low salaries only benefited from indexation in the year the first of the reform.
But the inequality will also be profound for pensioners who are completely dependent on the pension payment, as the public administration is also fed by informal sources./ Monitor