High salaries in the public sector, low incomes for the poor, pensioners

The highest salary in the country is 4913 euros by Trust Director Adrian Zalli, for whom in the next three years the new Law on Salaries will not be valid. While President Hashim Thaci's salary currently stands at 2672 euros, where, under the new wage law, the president will have the salary of 2390 euros with the co-efficiency of 10 or 282 euros less than the current salary.

While, with the government's recent decision, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj's current salary is 2950 euros, but with the new law, the prime minister's salary will be with the cofficient 9 or 2151 euros per month (799 euros less than the current salary). The prime minister's co-fficiency will include Kosovo Parliament Speaker Kadri Veselini and the chairman of the Constitutional Court. The assembly's current salary is 2555 euros.

Meanwhile, the current salary of a ministry in the Government of Kosovo is 2,000 euros.

The average salary in the public sector according to the latest data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency has reached 532 euros, while the average salary in the public enterprise sector is 667 euros.

In the private sector, the average salary is 384 euros.

The data for the social assistance scheme (SNS) for poor families for January, respectively, has been used by the total of 25.186 families, with 102,55 family members.

The lowest social assistance is 60 euros, while the highest is 180.

Labour and Social Management Ministry officials have told Kosovo that the monthly amount of social assistance is determined on the basis of the number of family members, meaning the one-member family gets 60 euros a month (minalja), while the 15-member family receives a total of 180 euros (Maximalja). Every family in the social assistance scheme, in addition to basic assistance, receives an additional 5 euros for each child from the age of 0-18.

For pensions, the director of the pension department at the Ministry of Labour and Social Health, Bahri Xhaferi, has said that pension categories, which are earmarked for pensioners every month, are 75 euros for retirement of old age and 158 to 230 euros for contributing pensions.

Xhaferi has said that with budget planning 2019, the lowest pension -- the old one is 90 euros; and the highest is 265 euros for qualified pensioners.

Xhaferi: There are four pension contributions categories

We have four categories, payment pension, elementary school, high school, high school and college... By elementary school, it is currently 158 euros, with a 172 high school education of 186 euros, while with a faculty it is 230. But it is a budgetary planning for 2019 that envisions growth of about 15 percent for this pension scheme. The increase pay we did not make for January due to no budget approval, of course it will happen in February. ...75 euros of basic pension (freedom) is 20 per cent I believe will be 90 euros per February, I believe there will be payment retroactivity for January<1>, Xhaferi said.

The university professor, Muhamet Sadiku, has told Kosovo Press is the difference between wages, pensions and social aid, where, according to him, 8-10 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty, and about 20 per cent of people live in the poverty zone, which means that about 30 per cent of the population in Kosovo are in the area of poverty risk.

Sadiku has said that Kosovo has an obligation to increase more and more national productivity, because in the developed world wages move depending on productivity movement.

Sadiku: 30 per cent of the population have less than 2 euros per daily consumption

The “shows a huge difference between lower and higher levels, and this shows that however Kosovo's social reality exists with social exclusion phenomena, because it must be acknowledged how much people have less than two euros for daily consumption. I estimate that according to statistics about 8-10 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty, and about 20 per cent of people live in the poverty zone, which means that about 30 per cent of the population in Kosovo are in some way in the area of poverty risk and at the same time in the social exclusion area”, Sadiku stressed.

He has further said that Kosovo's key towards overcoming many challenges and problems is increasing productivity.

Otherwise, with 63 votes for and a abstention, the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo has approved the Law for Salaries in the public sector on February 2nd of this year, which has an annual cost of about 120m euros. While, for the minimum wage in Kosovo, at 170 euros, discussion is expected at the parliamentary session with the PSD's GP proposal.