## And He Paid for His Wife Himself The head of the Latvian government reported that although his wife went to Paris at the invitation of French President Macron and his spouse, he, Kulbergs, took on all the expenses for this trip of his better half. He noted that the prime minister's salary is quite substantial and allows for such a trip for his wife. He added that ministers also receive adequate salaries. "However, I believe the salaries of parliamentary secretaries are inflated," said A. Kulbergs. Interestingly, just parallel to this revelation from the prime minister, a "confession" from the former head of the State Chancellery, Janis Citskovskis, emerged, who decided to enter big politics and therefore began to speak the truth – including about how the decision was made to sharply increase the salaries of high-ranking officials at one time. Of course, one wants to ask where this former official was before – why did he decide to reveal the "terrible secret" only now? However, this is a well-established tradition, where the memory of officials and politicians returns only when they leave public service or a specific position. ## The Estonian Model with Latvian Amendments Here are the "testimonies" of the former head of the State Chancellery, who, by the way, is currently being tried in the so-called airplane case of former Prime Minister Karins. "The reform of remuneration for officials in Latvia was conducted using the Estonian model as a basis. The reform in Latvia was carried out in two stages – first, from January 1, 2019, salaries for judges and prosecutors were raised, and on July 1, 2022, higher state officials and those employed in state and municipal institutions began to receive more. In Latvia, the remuneration of state officials was established by multiplying the coefficient set for each official by the average salary in the national economy (the "base salary") while maintaining the hierarchy of officials and the balance of power branches. The State Chancellery initially proposed to fully copy the Estonian model along with the Estonian coefficients. Since in 2018 the average salary in Latvia was 77% of the average salary in Estonia, the monthly salary of Latvian state officials would be set at 77% of the monthly salary of the corresponding Estonian official. If the average salary in the Latvian economy had reached the level of Estonia, then state officials would also receive salaries at the Estonian level. However, in 2018, for some high-ranking officials in Latvia (the president, the chairman of the Constitutional Court), this would mean freezing salaries for one to two years – they were already receiving no less than the Estonian elite. Therefore, during the development of the draft law, former Prime Minister K. Karins made a political decision in 2019 to immediately equalize the salaries of high-ranking officials in Latvia to the level of salaries of high-ranking officials in the Estonian state (for example, in the draft, the increase for the Speaker of the Saeima and the Prime Minister was 916 euros). ## Not Sparing for Themselves The second political "correction" occurred when the parliamentary secretary of Prime Minister K. Karins, E. Silina, coordinated the draft law at the political level with the factions of the political parties represented in the Saeima in 2021. After negotiations, E. Silina instructed the State Chancellery to make the following changes to the draft law: * a) increase the coefficient of the monthly salary of a Saeima deputy from 3.2 to 3.5. (The State Chancellery also increased the coefficient of the monthly salary of judges from 2.91 to 3.2 to ensure balance between the branches of power); * b) increase the coefficient of the monthly salary of the Prime Minister and parliamentary secretaries of ministries from 4.68 to 5.5 (for example, if this adjustment had not been made, then in 2026 the salary of a parliamentary secretary of a ministry would have been not 6804 euros, but "only" 5790 euros). I remember that Citskovskis himself, when presenting his salary reform to the previous Saeima, shed crocodile tears about the turnover of personnel in public administration – precisely due to low official salaries. At that time, the country's chief official said that the goal of the reform was to ensure that salaries in public administration were at least 70 percent of salaries for similar positions in the private sector. As a result, in the three years following the start of the reform, remuneration in public administration grew exponentially and not only "caught up" but also surpassed the private sector! Experts in economics and finance are already saying that it is extremely dangerous for the development of the economy and its competitiveness when salaries in public administration grow significantly faster than in the private sector – after all, public administration does not create added value and lives off the income of the private sector. Notably, and here Prime Minister Kulbergs is right – the salaries of leaders of large state enterprises are higher than those of the Prime Minister and the President! "Although the responsibility of the Prime Minister is still higher!" Kulbergs diplomatically noted. ## Living Beautifully Is Not Prohibited But let's return to the salaries of high-ranking officials in Latvia: * the president, prime minister, speaker of the Saeima, chairpersons of the Constitutional and Supreme Courts, the prosecutor general, and heads of other independent state structures receive monthly (excluding funds for representative expenses received by the president and prime minister) "in hand" about 6200-6400 euros, * ministers – 5700-5900 euros, * parliamentary secretaries of ministries – 4600-4800 euros, * ordinary deputies – 3000-3100 euros. The head of the prime minister's bureau earns 4300-4500 "net" per month, the prime minister's advisor – 2900-3100. The director of a ministry's department receives from 3800 to 4200 euros net, the head of a department in a ministry – 2400-3100, experts – 2000-2400… As you can see, many working in the private sector can only dream of such incomes. ## This One Got, and That One Did Not Recently, journalists from Latvian TV "unearthed" discrepancies in the salaries of officials in different ministries. That is, officials in the same positions in different ministries are "rewarded" differently. For example, salaries for state secretaries differ between ministries. The highest salary for this position is in the Ministry of Economics (8639 euros), while the lowest is in the Ministry of Culture (4654 euros). However, in most ministries, salaries for state secretaries cluster around the general average level, which is about 6800 euros. At the same time, salaries for deputy state secretaries differ even more than for state secretaries. The highest salary is in the Ministry of Finance (over 8000 euros), while the lowest is in the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development (almost 3000 euros). However, the salary in the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development is stated only for the time worked during which management decisions were made. The total salary is not specified. The average salary of department directors in ministries also varies. The highest salary is in the Ministry of Finance (slightly over 8000 euros before taxes), while the lowest is in the Ministry of Culture (3000 euros).