Almost three years after legislation was passed to create a unified pay structure in the public sector, many discrepancies still exist in the salaries civil servants receive in Greece.
In October 2011 the government approved a law introducing an across-the-board wage system with the aim of reducing salary costs and eliminating numerous inequalities.
According to figures seen by the Greek daily Kathimerini, although civil servants’ wages have dropped since then (in some cased by more than 30 per cent),
there are still discrepancies, particularly between the wages paid to those working in the central administration and those in the wider public sector.
For instance, an employee at the Development Ministry who has only finished junior high school earns 1,848 euros gross a month, whereas a university graduate working for the Centre for Research on Equality Matters earns 1,610 euros.
An employee at the Environment Ministry with a university degree earns a monthly wage of 2,033 euros whereas at the Centre for Renewable Energy, which operates under the ministry’s auspices, a staff member with the same qualifications earns 2,540 euros.
The troika recently asked the government to re-examine the civil service wage structure and to iron out the differences without increasing public expenditure.
Source: ekathimerini