Kosovo’s government has announced a public sector salary increase, set to take effect just ahead of the parliamentary February 2025 elections.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced in a press conference on Tuesday that from January to July 2025, public sector employees will receive a 55 euros increase in their monthly salaries with an additional 55 euro raise after July. 

“We will implement a substantial salary increase in the public sector at the start of next year, while maintaining long-term budget sustainability and following the current law,” Kurti said.

A law on public sector salaries, enforced in 2023, set coefficients of salaries from 1 to 20, depending on the sector and job position. The baseline coefficient value in 2023 was 105 euros, in 2024 the Kurti led government increased the baseline coefficient to 110 euros. The two salary coefficients are multiplied to set the salary for each public sector job.

Kurti explained on Tuesday that the government decided to not increase the coefficient’s value but the coefficient itself by one unit for each category. 

“Therefore, the value of a coefficient remains 110 euros, but the number of units per coefficient will increase,” he explained, adding that the government has planned a budget of over 3.6 billion euros for next year, an increase from last year’s budget of 3.3 billion euros.

Rrahman Jasharaj, the head of the United Union of Education, Science, and Culture, SBASHK, told BIRN that the planned public sector salary increase starting in  January 2025 does not meet the union’s requirements.

“Based on initial discussions with Education Directors in municipalities, this salary increase in January is very disappointing; we expected much more. Our request has been for a 30% increase from October in the coefficient value, but this increase of just 55 euros is ironic, undervalued, and unacceptable,” Jasharaj said.

Soon after Kurti’s announcement, Lumir Abdixhiku, leader of the opposition party the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK,  pledged that “in the first week of my government, the salary coefficient will be set at 150 euros”.

The government’s decision comes months before the February 9 parliamentary elections. In late August, PM Kurti’s government also almost doubled the minimum wage to 2 euros an hour, or 350 euros a month for a full-time job. 

In September, Kurti also announced that as of October 2024, pensioners will receive 20 percent higher pensions. As of January 2025, there will also be an additional 20 percent increase in pensions of “war-related categories”.