The decision on not freezing the salaries of MPs was considered and jointly adopted by the Presidium of the Saeima. Mieriņa emphasizes that such decisions were made in solidarity with the state administration.
“By completely freezing monthly salaries without increasing them by a single percentage point in a tight budget situation, a situation may arise in the coming years where the monthly salaries of MPs may increase very drastically, which will require a disproportionately high increase in the budget of the Saeima,” explains the Speaker of the Parliament.
The government has supported the 2025 compensation fund growth limit of no more than 2.6% compared to the 2024 updated plan on July 31 this year.
In 2025, the base salary of elected and appointed state officials will increase by 6% – from 1,205.71 euros this year to 1,278.05 euros next year, according to information on the Cabinet of Ministers website. If the government had not decided to limit the increase in public sector salaries, the politicians’ salaries would have increased by the mentioned 6% next year.
In accordance with the law on remuneration of officials and employees of state and local government institutions, the monthly salary of elected officials and officials appointed by the Saeima is determined by taking the base monthly salary as a basis and applying a coefficient to it. Calculations of the basic monthly salary, on the other hand, are basically based on the increase of the average salary in the country, and it is recalculated once a year.
For the highest state officials – the President, the Speaker of the Saeima, the Prime Minister, the President of the Constitutional Court and the President of the Supreme Court – the coefficient “seven” is applied to calculate the monthly salary, respectively, the maximum gross monthly salary for these officials in 2025 was planned to be 8,946 euros compared to 8,440 euros this year.
A coefficient of 3.5 is applied to calculate the salaries of Saeima members, so the gross basic salary of members next year was planned to be 4,473 euros compared to 4,220 euros this year. The amount actually paid to MPs per month may differ from the above, taking into account the various allowances and compensations provided to them. A coefficient of 5.5 is applied to calculate the salary of parliamentary secretaries, and accordingly the salary next year was planned to be 7,029 euros per month compared to 6,631 euros this year. Now this increase will be more moderate.
Meanwhile, at the instigation of the President, it is planned to freeze the management salaries of state-owned capital companies, while the relevant draft law is being considered in the Saeima.