Yerevan Mayor's Salary Nears Moscow Mayor's Salary

According to '168 Hours', there will be heated discussions in the upcoming session of the Yerevan Council. The 'My Step' faction of the Council will present a bill proposing that Mayor Hayk Marutyan's salary be increased from 575,000 drams to 1,200,000 drams (approximately $2,500), which is the same amount as the Prime Minister's salary.

As part of the same bill, heads of municipal departments are set to receive 641,000 drams instead of the previous 346,000 drams, while district leaders will see their salaries rise from 400,000 drams to 773,000 drams, and their deputies from 346,000 drams to 668,000 drams.

For comparison, the budget of Moscow City was approximately $45 billion in 2019 (2.6 trillion rubles), while Yerevan's budget amounts to $172 million. The annual income of Moscow's Mayor Sergey Sobyanin is around $108,000, approximately $9,000 per month.

Given that Moscow's budget revenues exceed Yerevan's by a factor of 254, is it justified that the income of the Moscow mayor surpasses that of his counterpart Hayk Marutyan by 2.5 times? This is particularly concerning when the minimum wage in our country is only 55,000 drams.

Some of our readers have remarked that Hayk Marutyan should receive a salary equivalent to $45-50 until he truly works to fulfill all the promises made during the revolution. Can anyone explain why the salaries of the mayor and other high-ranking officials in the city administration should be increased?