Bonus Practice to End: Salary Increases Planned in Yerevan Municipality

Member of the Yerevan City Council and Secretary of the "My Step" faction, Armen Galjyan, has released a statement detailing the proposal for salary increases for Yerevan municipality employees.

Armen Galjyan announced that, along with his colleague Levon Hovhannisyan, they have introduced a draft decision to increase the salaries of employees at the Yerevan municipality and administrative districts. “The draft proposes to raise the salaries of around 2000 employees. I find it necessary to mention that there is no increase in the monthly minimum salary compensation (68,000 drams) received by council members under this draft. The total annual fund for salaries and bonuses at the Yerevan municipality is approximately 7 billion drams, and it is also important to note that this project does not add any additional burden to the city budget because the funds that have been provided by the municipality in recent years as bonuses—which were essentially additional salaries—will now be allocated as a part of the basic salary,” the city council member elaborated.

According to him, since the current salaries do not meet the conditions of the current job market and often do not allow for the attraction of high-quality specialists, as they were established back in 2011, this proposal will provide community employees with a fixed and higher salary. Galjyan added that the practice of paying bonuses, which was often unjustified and not unambiguously accepted by the public, will be eliminated, and only those employees who truly perform additional work will receive bonuses.

“In this regard, I find it imperative to emphasize that the ‘My Step’ faction of the Yerevan City Council will multiply its oversight capabilities over the work of the municipality and administrative districts following the adoption of this decision and will be persistent in excluding the issuance of unjustified bonuses,” the statement reads.