A golden spoon for elected officials: raising the salaries of deputies’ assistants against the background of other Ukrainians

In June 2024, the Verkhovna Rada registered bill, in which the salary increase for assistants of people’s deputies is considered. The initiator of this document was Galina Tretyakova, a people’s deputy from the “Servant of the People” party. In her opinion, the work of deputies’ assistants is underestimated, and this leads to the involvement of unqualified workers, and, therefore, to the weakening of the law-making system.

The project states that the wage fund for deputies’ assistants should increase from 29.2 of the minimum wage to 43.8. According to the project, the salary of assistants should change as follows:

• for one assistant, they propose to increase the salary from UAH 85,000 to UAH 130,000;
• for two assistants, instead of UAH 43,000, UAH 64,000 will be charged;
• three assistants will earn UAH 43,000 instead of UAH 28,000;

Thus, the total expenses for the maintenance of people’s deputies’ assistants will increase to 51 million hryvnias compared to the current 34 million hryvnias

Currently, 401 people’s deputies work in the Verkhovna Rada, while 4,322 assistant consultants help them carry out their “difficult” activities. Among these assistants, 1,004 are paid according to the contract. On average, each deputy has 2-3 assistants, and each of them receives a salary.

People’s deputy from “Servant of the People” Volodymyr Kreidenko also tried to explain the need to increase the salary of assistants of people’s deputies. Thus, according to him, UAH 88,000 is allocated for three assistants, excluding taxes. That is, one assistant receives UAH 29,000. And if you also subtract 19.5% of taxes, the amount will be lower than the salaries of some Kyiv residents. The People’s Deputy believes that people who process a bunch of appeals every day and create legislative acts together with deputies should not be paid such a salary.

How underestimated is the work of other Ukrainians

During the years of the full-scale invasion, there is not a single profession in Ukraine that did not experience difficulties in working conditions. For example, doctors, in fact, live in hospitals, constantly providing assistance to the sick and wounded. The salary of doctors is increasing, but the question arises as to how adequate its level is in modern realities. The average salary of a medical worker in Ukraine is UAH 16,000. Its level is affected by the position, experience of the doctor and scope of his duties. It is worth noting that the place of work plays not the least role in the amount of a doctor’s salary. A doctor in the capital earns the most – UAH 17,500. A doctor from Zaporizhzhia receives UAH 14,000. The lowest paid is the work of a doctor from Kharkiv (13,500 UAH).

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have many medical workers who perform their duty in extremely difficult conditions, exposing themselves to constant danger and risking their lives. Their work is evaluated as follows:

• junior medical workers – UAH 8,000;
• nurses and nurses – UAH 15.5 thousand;
• doctors and pharmacists, as well as persons with non-medical education in the medical field receive UAH 23,000.

During the wartime, the sphere of energy industry of Ukraine is experiencing some of the most terrible challenges. Every day, both day and night, energy workers are forced to go to destroyed objects and repair them under constant fire. The average salary of an engineer in Ukraine is UAH 13,363. Wages here vary depending on specialization and region. Most receives an energy engineer from the Zaporizhia region – UAH 16,900, in the Dnipropetrovsk region – UAH 12,567, in the Kharkiv region. – UAH 12,093, in Odesa region the lowest figure is UAH 9,350. Employees of the energy sector repeatedly come under fire while performing repair and restoration work. It should be noted that during the period of the full-scale invasion, there are already about 100 dead energy workers, and twice as many wounded.

Police officers receive an average of UAH 20,000 per month, despite the fact that they perform extremely important and difficult tasks. Risking their health and lives, they catch criminals, ensure public safety, rescue and evacuate people under fire, collect evidence of war crimes, and take part in hostilities. Among them there is a large number of killed and wounded. According to the National Police, which were announced recently, only in the first 13 days of the war, 22 policemen were killed, 88 were seriously injured, in the first two weeks of the struggle with the Russian Federation, seven went missing, three law enforcement officers were captured.

So, the question arises, does the salary correspond to all the risks and incredibly difficult working conditions that all these workers are exposed to every day? Do any of the deputies’ assistants serve in the Armed Forces, save people, risk their lives? Why has none of the deputies submitted for consideration the issue of raising the wages of other Ukrainians, because the functioning of many spheres in the state depends on them? Why is there a question about assistants of people’s deputies?

Sad statistics are also observed in payment work of educators. Although the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine did not promise to raise the salary of teachers in 2024, in reality everything turns out differently. In January 2024, teachers did receive a 10% bonus, and immediately the prestige bonus was also reduced by 10%. The rate of a young teacher without category and seniority is UAH 5,699, which is even lower than the minimum wage of UAH 8,000. The teacher is responsible for the life and health of students in wartime conditions, is involved in paper work, often filling out a bunch of unnecessary reports, feels constant strict control from the administration. And we should also mention the fact that there are various difficulties both in working with students and in communicating with their parents. And it’s no secret that teachers are often forced to purchase the material necessary to ensure a full-fledged educational process at their own expense. Can the Minister of Education Oksen Lisovy with his salary of 76,000 UAH understand how a simple teacher survives? The question is rhetorical. Then why are officials surprised that young specialists do not go to work in schools, and experienced personnel have lost the desire to be proactive in their field.

And most importantly, doctors save lives, teachers teach and educate children – the future of Ukraine, energy workers ensure the functioning of all spheres of activity, police officers perform complex and important law enforcement activities. What will happen to the state if all of them do not want to work for such salaries?

Given this situation, it is obvious that people who have invested money in their education, and now benefit society, can barely meet the minimum needs, not to mention the possibility of saving the earned money, as the people say, “for a rainy day”.

In general, salary depends on various factors, which in turn vary depending on the field of activity, duties and place of work. These factors include:

• qualification and experience of the employee;
• the industry in which the activity is carried out;
• region (as a rule, wages are higher in big cities than in towns and villages);
• position and responsibility;
• economic situation in the country.

Observing how the deputies fight to push for consideration of the draft law on raising their salaries and the salaries of their assistants, constantly declaring that they do not have enough to live on and motivating these increases with the fact that they aim to improve the law-making system, their cynicism cannot withstand any criticism.

Why is there such an unequal dynamics of wages in our country, when one group of people receives large sums of money, and the other, on the contrary, barely makes ends meet? Probably, it is necessary for our deputies to get out of their comfortable offices and look at how Ukrainian society lives in the current realities.