Polish president increases pay of MPs and ministers, but opposition moves to block rises

President Andrzej Duda has issued an ordinance raising the salaries of various senior public officials from the start of this month, with increases of as much as 75%.

Under the new regulations, the prime minister and speakers of parliament will earn just over 20,000 złoty (€4,395) a month, rises of 40% and 75% respectively. MPs and senators will have salaries of almost 13,000 złoty, an increase of 60%.

Meanwhile, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which supported Duda’s reelection last year, has proposed a separate law that would raise the president’s salary by 40%, provide higher pensions to his predecessors, and increase the pay of local government officials.

PiS argues that such increases are necessary for officials’ salaries to keep track with the rising wages of Poles. Poland’s average monthly salary reached 5,800 zloty in June, up almost 10% year-on-year, according to Statistics Poland (GUS), a state agency.

The opposition has, however, criticised the rises and pledged to seek to block them. Last year, the opposition initially supported an attempt to introduce similar pay rises, but later backtracked after a public backlash, resulting in the legislation being abandoned.

The ordinance issued by President Duda on Friday officially increased the salaries of undersecretaries of state. But, because the earnings of other officials are indexed to the pay of undersecretaries, this effectively gave a much wider salary bump.

“There is no doubt that those serving as undersecretaries earn incommensurably little as they have not received a raise in 20 years,” Duda argued, quoted by Onet. “This is an attempt to make salaries more realistic,” he added, saying that pay was disproportionate to the responsibility borne by officials.

However, the largest opposition group, Civic Coalition (KO), announced yesterday that it would introduce legislation undoing the rises. The second largest group, The Left (Lewica), indiciated that it may support KO’s bill. It has proposed instead to increase the salaries of teachers, nurses and other state sector workers.

“At a time…when taxes are to go up [and] prices are sky high, providing a group of selected politicians with a pay rise of 40% or 60% is simply dishonest, and we can’t accept that,” said KO’s spokesman, Jan Grabiec, quoted by Rzeczpospolita.

The government recently unveiled a stimulus package that will include tax rises for some, though it insists that most Poles will benefit. Inflation in Poland is currently at its highest level in two decades, and among the highest in the European Union.

The far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), which was last year the only group in parliament to initially vote against pay rises for MPs, has also expressed opposition to the latest move. “We are in an [economic] crisis caused by the same politicians who are now raising salaries,” MP Dobromir Sośnierz told Wprost.