The Labor Payment Law Has Become Unfair: Employers on Excessively High Salaries of Officials 0 8

"The number of people receiving the maximum salary in government bodies has increased tenfold, and the Labor Payment Law has become unfair; it needs to be reviewed and adjusted," said Gorkšs.

The number of public sector employees with pre-tax salaries of 6000 euros or more per month, which is the maximum salary group according to the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB), was 324 in 2012, and by November 2023, it had risen to 3004.

In just over a decade, the number of people in the high salary group has increased approximately tenfold.

"If we look at the growth of bonuses, allowances, and cash premiums, comparing data from 2019, the growth will be 64.5%, which is about 20 percentage points higher than inflation. This roughly corresponds to the wage growth rate over 13 years; the only remark is that the growth is not quite a linear function, but rather a flat exponential one, which is also indicated by trends in the budget expenditure section, which mainly consists of salaries. The budget expenditure section has increased by 86.9% from 2019 to the present. In comparison, inflation during this period is 41.9%. Specifically, budget expenditures are growing twice as fast, and most of this growth is due to salary increases," writes Dienas Bizness.