The government of Robert Golob has recently presented a new wage bill, which has been highly criticised by experts. The reform foresees a gradual increase in salaries, with mayors, MPs, judges and other judicial officials benefiting the most. Their salaries are expected to increase by more than 50 percent, and even by 75 percent for the President of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK). Meanwhile, civil servants such as nurses, teachers, police officers and clerks will see a much lower increase – around 25 percent. Is this really a “great success,” as Luka Mesec said, or is it just about ensuring further privileges for the elite? We asked political commentator Boštjan M. Turk what the long-term consequences would be for the majority of workers and how the media and NGOs would have reacted if Janez Janša, as the Prime Minister, were to increase his salary by more than two thousand euros.
According to Prime Minister Robert Golob, this is the biggest overhaul of the wage system in the last 15 years. However, the reform will bring greater differentiation between officials and other civil servants, which raises questions about the fairness of this distribution. Those at the top – MPs, mayors, judges and other judicial officials – will be rewarded the most. By contrast, those working in basic public services, such as healthcare and education, will receive much smaller rises.
Political analyst Boštjan M. Turk sees this as confirmation of the existence of a so-called “new class,” which he describes as the party bourgeoisie – an elite that, despite its rhetoric about fairness and workers’ rights, is, in fact, primarily concerned with itself. “These are the people who constantly refer to partisanship and anti-fascism and workers’ rights, while doing the exact opposite. We call them caviar leftists, they mostly live in Ljubljana, and they are the foundation of the new class,” Turk stressed.
Rewarding “work”
The judiciary is another key point of this new class. According to Turk, the Slovenian justice system, which is supported by the ruling elite, has long been a tool for political reckoning. “The judicial class must be rewarded for its work, for its inefficiency and bias, which ensure that some remain untouchable,” he noted. “It is known that if you are Zoran Janković, nothing can happen to you, because he stands against Janez Janša, as Janković himself has said before.” The higher you are in this system, the better the rewards – a logic reflected in the proposed pay rises.
A new pay scale
As is already the case, the three most important people in the country, according to the protocol – the President of the Republic, the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister – will be placed in the highest salary bracket. The basic salary of the President of the Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, and the Prime Minister, Robert Golob, will be increased by 45 percent. The President of the Supreme Court, Miodrag Đorđević, will also be promoted to the highest salary grade. They will receive a raise of around two thousand euros.
Ministers’ salaries will be increased by 37-40 percent, with the introduction of a new grade – that of the Deputy Prime Minister. They – usually the presidents of coalition parties – will be ranked two grades higher than the highest-paid minister. Their salary will be 8,315 euros gross, as will that of the President of the National Council, who will receive a 42 percent increase.
MPs’ salaries will also rise, by between 44 percent and 50 percent. The Vice-Presidents of the National Assembly will be placed in the 63rd salary grade, as will the highest-ranking Members of the National Assembly. By 2028, their salaries will rise by 50 percent, from 5,412 euros gross to 7,837 euros gross base.
The Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, on the other hand, is facing a 68 percent pay rise, according to a list published by the newspaper Večer.
A success for the Left party, a disappointment for most public servants
The Left party (Levica) also expressed satisfaction at the signing of the declaration. “The much-awaited harmonisation of the law on public sector wages is one of the biggest successes of this mandate. The Left’s coalition demand was to make the minimum wage the starting grade. And today, we have succeeded in doing just that,” said Asta Vrečko, President of the Left party, while former President of the said party and Minister of Labour Luka Mesec said this was a “great success”. Ironically, however, this success will not reach the majority of civil servants. Instead, it will bring the greatest benefits to the few who are represented by the new class.
According to Boštjan M. Turk, it is a success primarily for those who form the core of the political elite, especially in Ljubljana. “For Mesec and his allies, of course, this is a success. Their voter base comes from Ljubljana, where the majority of this privileged elite is located. But most people in the public sector will be worse off because inflation will make life more and more expensive,” Turk stressed.
Long-term consequences: life will be more expensive for all
The wage bill has a number of long-term consequences, which will be felt most by those who will receive smaller increases. Higher wages for the elite will have a knock-on effect of raising costs in other sectors. Pay rises for nurses and teachers may seem beneficial at first sight, but they will quickly be “eaten up” by inflation and the general rise in the cost of living. However, as the proposal makes clear, in 2025, salaries will not be aligned with inflation. During the transition period, the alignment is foreseen if consumer price increases exceed a certain percentage: 1.8 percent in 2026, 1.6 percent in 2027 and 1 percent in 2028.
“What we are about to see here is a classic example of an economic tsunami. When one part of the system goes up, it triggers a wave of increases in other parts. In the end, most people, especially those with lower wages, will be worse off because they will have to pay higher taxes and more expensive public services,” warned Turk.
This was also pointed out by Tomaž Štih, who, when asked how much workers’ wages will rise after the government’s “anti-reform”, said: “Zero, the reform only applies to the public sector, and in the long run it will affect them negatively, because workers will have to foot the bill through taxes and higher prices.”
It is a scam of the workers
Štih went on to warn that this is “a quality trade union-government deception of the workers by manipulating the categories of minimum and basic wages.” When the government raises the basic wages of those below the minimum wage to the level of the minimum wage and the next month they get exactly the same amount of money in their account, they pay exactly the same amount of contributions, and it costs the employers exactly the same as it did all the months before, the computer engineer and columnist said.
Turk also touched on how the media and NGOs would react if a similar law were proposed by the government of Janez Janša. If Janša were in power, the law would be seen as an attack on social justice and as favouritism for the elite, Turk pointed out. He added that we do not actually have media at all, but merely an extension of politics that works in their favour.
Instead of the reform bringing a fair distribution of income and improved living conditions for all, it seems to be another case of a privileged minority gaining at the expense of the majority.
A. G.
