With just a few months to go before parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has proposed to freeze the salaries of elected representatives. A bill that would block increases to MPs’ salaries was submitted by Babiš as a deputy in the Chamber of Deputies. It must be approved by the lower house, the Senate, and signed by the President. Photo Credit: Vlada.cz.
Czech Rep., May 28 (BD) – Prime Minister Andrej Babiš is proposing to freeze the salaries of politicians at the current level, which is unchanged from last year. According to a report by Czech news server iDnes.cz, Babiš said he considers it unacceptable that salaries are expected to grow by at least 5.9% next year, following to an amendment to the law on the salaries of state officials, approved by the parliament last year.
“Such an increase in the salaries of government officials and judges cannot currently be considered acceptable, both in comparison with most employees remunerated from the state budget and with private sector employees, especially those affected by the economic downturn associated with the safety measures,” wrote Babiš in the explanatory memorandum.
According to the existing law, the so-called base salary is calculated as a multiple of the average gross wage per person in the whole economy. Babiš has proposed changing this calculation so that the base salary for a given year is multiplied by the wage growth index according to development in the previous year.
“We are ready to support it, as although it will certainly not pull the thorn out of the heel in the case of the state budget, it is probably an important signal,” said Jan Hamáček, Deputy Prime Minister and CSSD leader. He added that the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Jana Maláčová (ČSSD), had made a similar proposal.
The basic monthly salary of a deputy and senator would thus remain at the level of CZK 90,800 next year, the same as last year. The basic salary of the President would continue to be CZK 302,700 gross, and that of the Prime Minister CZK 243,800. Last year, the salaries of constitutional officials cost the state a total of CZK 5.8 billion. This year, the draft budget envisages a total of CZK 83 million lower.
