The topic is discussed by Margarit Yessayan, National Assembly MP, and Lusine Vasilyan, the Head of “National Assembly Monitoring” project
Aram Abrahamyan – As of July 1, the Law on Increasing the Public Servants Wages entered into force. The MPs’ salaries will rise, too. How much is necessary to feel perfectly happy? The NA Speaker’s salary will be 1 million drams. Is it much or less?
Lusine Vasilyan – It seems to me that the standard is very individual for each on how much monthly income he needs to be happy. Each one has its own formula, according to my formula, it may be 1 million, but no happiness. In our case, given the Armenia realities that the minimum wage is 45,000 drams, a vast mass of employees receive up to 100,000 drams, and on this background, this increase gives rise to discussion of comments. I remember the discussion round of the law, it’s good that they started calculating the wages by one unified scale, its’ good that they became comparable, and coefficients were defined. But, as a result, how proportionately the revenues of working people increased, this is the topic of discussion.
Margarit Yesayan – It would be great if everything in the whole Republic, the average wages and the minimum wages goes up, and the people, our citizens receive decent wages. But in this situation, we have what we have. The bill on Wages of Public Servants refers to around 200 thousand people. In other words, it is not so that only the wages of 131 MPs is increased. Nearly 200 thousand citizens of Armenia who work in the state institutions, government agencies, will receive a much higher salary than before as of July 1. This is already a very positive step, and I think that we will gradually go by the path that both the average wages and the minimum wages will be higher.
A. A. – I know a lot of public servants who do not take bribes, they are working in ministries, departments and so on. But, as I understand, it has not been increased proportionately, the wages of MPs has “jumped up” twice, whereas the public servants’ – by percentage. Please, explain the matter.
L. V. – This is one of the bills of our project monitoring. Indeed, coefficients are defined for all positions. The highest coefficient is the coefficient of the President of the Republic of Armenia – 20, the next comes the NA Speaker and the Prime Minister – 18, the lowest coefficient goes to the junior specialist of the state system – 1.25, this is multiplied by the minimum base wages, which the government defines as 66.000 AMD, and a scale is formed. As a result, it turned out that the government officials occupying high positions, including the deputies of the parliament, we have a doubled or tripled salary, and the average employee’s salary is in the domain of symbolic increase.
M. Ye. – I disagree that only the senior officials’ the salaries have been increased by about a half. The salaries of people being in lower status or occupying lower positions have also been increased by half. As for the deputies, of course, I understand that number one target are always the deputies, it’s ordinary and acceptable, but do not forget that not all MPs in the National Assembly are waiting for the salaries. By my rough calculations, about the half or more than the half expect to be paid at the beginning of the month, because they do not have additional income, do not get bribe, and are not owners, and do not think that the wages that we had before this increase was sufficient.
Prepared by ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
“Face to Face” talk show series are released by the Open Society Foundations- Armenia. The views and analyzes found in this broadcast express the opinions of the participants, and are not approved by the Open Society Foundations-Armenia, or its Board. This broadcast is made available thanks to comprehensive financial support by the Open Society Foundations-Armenia, under the mass media support program, grant No 18624.
