Horizontal Salary Increase for Public Employees – Detailed Examples

The current horizontal salary increase of €30 for all public employees follows last year’s significant raise in compensation, according to an announcement from the Ministry of Finance. It is noted that last year, salaries for all public employees increased by €70 monthly, family allowances rose by €20 to €50, position responsibility bonuses and remote area allowances were boosted by 30%, travel expenses were enhanced, and substantial changes were made to the specialized pay scales of doctors, uniformed personnel, DEP members, and judicial staff. In addition to the horizontal increase of €30 for all public employees, costing €215 million for 2025, further measures are being implemented this year to boost net earnings for public sector workers: autonomous taxation of doctor shift reimbursements in the National Healthcare System at a cost of €40 million; reducing insurance contributions by one unit in the public sector starting January 1, 2025; non-aggregation of individual differences in public employee pay increases up to €300, with partial aggregation for higher differences affecting around 40,000 public employees at an annual cost of €12 million, increasing yearly by €5 million; expanding goal achievement incentives in the public sector at an annual cost of €40 million; raising night shift compensation for uniformed personnel starting January 1, 2025, at an annual cost of €25 million; and strengthening armed forces and security corps members with special working conditions and risk bonuses, providing €100 monthly reinforcement affecting 156,000 uniformed personnel, with an estimated total cost of €111 million for 2025 and €222 million for 2026. Overall, these interventions amount to a financial cost of €526 million for 2025. The total financial cost of interventions from 2023 to 2025 is estimated at €2.07 billion. Taking into account that the total payroll cost of the public sector (including employer contributions) was €18.8 billion in 2022, these pay raises and tax reductions correspond to 11% of the annual salary or an average of 1.3 monthly salaries. Several examples illustrate the impact on various employee profiles.