„Such a request has definitely been heard,“ the Prime Minister told journalists at the Government on Friday.
According to the Prime Minister, such an initiative has been registered in parliament, and the Ministry of the Interior (VRM) is examining the situation.
M. Sinkevičius pointed out that some mayors currently earn less than the heads of schools or hospitals.
„The level of responsibility is high, so when evaluating the mayors’ expressed view that the salary should be increased, we will assess it comprehensively. The final decision will be made by parliament,“ the Prime Minister stated.
„I think that if parliament decides to raise the salaries of mayors, it will only apply to newly elected mayors, that is, after the local government elections,“ he added.
The Ministry of the Interior began coordinating a bill in May to increase the salaries of city and district municipality mayors.
At that time, it was announced that the coefficients of the official salaries of all municipality mayors would be changed.
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According to the law, the salary of state officials is calculated by multiplying the coefficient by the base amount of the official salary, which this year is 1798 euros.
The VRM also proposes to divide municipalities into three, rather than five, categories by size, as is currently the case.
According to the initial project, the salary coefficient for mayors of municipalities with more than 500,000 inhabitants was proposed to be increased from 3.5 to 4 – up to about 7.1 thousand euros “on paper” or about 4.3 thousand euros “in hand.”
Currently, Vilnius is the only municipality in Lithuania with more than half a million inhabitants.
The salary coefficient for mayors of municipalities with 50,000 to 500,000 inhabitants would be 3.7 – about 6.6 thousand euros “on paper” (about 4 thousand euros “in hand”), and for heads of municipalities with up to 50,000 inhabitants – 3.5 or 6.2 thousand euros “on paper” (about 3.8 thousand euros “in hand”).
As BNS wrote, in mid-April the Lithuanian Association of Municipalities appealed to the Seimas, urging the central government to increase mayors’ salaries and create competitive conditions at the local government level to attract persons with the highest qualifications and competencies.
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