Pay restraint for senior officials to save €32.3 million

The government’s plan to extend limits on salary indexation for some senior public officials is expected to save €32.3 million over three years, Estonia’s Finance Ministry said, according to ERR. Judges have warned that the measure could conflict with the Constitution.

The government-approved budget strategy extends the reduced indexation of some officials’ salaries through the end of 2030. Under current law, full indexation is due to resume for all senior public officials on April 1, 2028.

The reduced indexation was introduced as a temporary measure in 2023 and applied from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2028. It covers government ministers, judges, the prosecutor general, the state secretary, the national conciliator, and the commissioner for gender equality and equal treatment. The salaries of some other officials, including ministry chancellors and prosecutors, are also linked to the measure.

From April 1, 2026, the highest salary rate for senior public officials is about €10,240. The rate is set automatically under the law. The president, the speaker of parliament and the chief justice of the Supreme Court receive the highest salary.

Ivo Pilving, chair of the Supreme Court’s Administrative Law Chamber, said the limits could make it harder to recruit and retain judges. There are often too few qualified candidates for judicial positions, he said, and some judges leave because their pay does not compensate for heavy workloads and stress.

Dozens of judges challenged the original decision to restrain salary growth. Pilving said the Supreme Court had taken two complaints into consideration that week, while further cases were still being brought forward. He said he could not comment on the merits of the complaints because of his position.

Pilving said the Constitution requires the branches of government to be reasonably comparable, and warned that the gap between them would grow the longer the reduced indexation remained in place.