Bulgaria’s new cabinet gets pay rise
Members of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s new cabinet, members of Parliament and other top state office-bearers are to get pay increases, with Borissov set for a monthly salary of 4185 leva (about 2140 euro).
This is because of new National Statistical Institute figures, announced on November 10, showing increased average salaries. Calculations of the pay of politicians in government and Parliament are based on these statistics.
The basic salary of members of Parliament is to become 2700 leva (about 1380 euro), an increase of 114 leva.
MPs are paid three times the average salary in the public sector over the previous three months of the quarter. In September, this figure was 900 leva, 38 leva higher than in June.
Wage growth in the public sector also increases the salaries of the new ministers, who took office on November 7 after Borissov’s cabinet was voted in by Parliament. Cabinet ministers are paid a sum equal to 130 per cent of an MP’s pay. For ministers, this means a basic salary of 3510 leva – an increase of 148.20 leva.
The Prime Minister’s salary is 155 per cent of an MP’s salary, and the same applies to the salary of the Speaker of the National Assembly.
The President, Rossen Plevneliev, is paid a sum of two MP’s salaries: 5400 leva.
MPs are paid additional incomes, including 15 per cent of salary for participation in parliamentary committees.
Each Deputy Speaker – Bulgaria’s 43rd National Assembly has eight, one for each parliamentary group – gets an additional amount of 45 per cent of an MP’s salary. Heads of parliamentary committees get an additional 35 per cent, and deputy heads of committees get an additional 25 per cent.
According to the NSI figures, the average salary of Bulgarians was one per cent lower in the third quarter than in the second. In September it was 820 leva. On an annual basis, however, the figure is 2.3 per cent higher.
The NSI statistics show public sector salaries as higher than those in the private sector (debatably, this may be because of inaccuracies in disclosures in salaries, or concealment of actual total pay).
In the third quarter, according to the NSI, the average salary in the public sector was 875 leva and in the private sector, 788 leva.
