The City Hall Increases Salaries Again

The Yerevan City Hall will hold its regular council meeting today, with 16 items on the agenda. The 13th item proposes raising salaries for several employees of the Department of Architecture and Urban Development. This is a continuation of the salary increases from last July when salaries for staff in the architecture and urban development block were not raised due to some legal issues.

The city hall, which regularly increases salaries and awards bonuses, has not forgotten about this matter, and discussions regarding their salaries will take place during the meeting on November 30. Specifically, the salary of the head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Development will increase from 346,000 AMD to 697,000 AMD; the deputy head's salary will rise from 322,000 AMD to 561,000 AMD; the chief specialist's salary will also see a significant increase, going from 225,000 AMD to 323,000 AMD, and the salary of the administrative assistant will increase from 164,000 AMD to 248,000 AMD.

However, the increases at the city hall do not end here as employees from the various divisions within this department will also see salary hikes. For instance, the head of the Territorial First Division for Urban Development Documentation will see their salary rise from 291,000 AMD to 408,000 AMD, while the chief specialist's salary goes from 225,000 AMD to 289,000 AMD, and the leading specialist's salary increases from 219,000 AMD to 282,000 AMD, among others. In the Engineering Infrastructure Division, the head's salary is proposed to rise by 117,000 AMD, bringing it to 408,000 AMD. Increases will also apply to the first and second divisions of Land Use and Land Allocation, as well as the division for special regulatory programs in urban development.

It should be noted that according to this proposal, over 2,000 employees of the city hall had their salaries raised by an average of about 100% in the summer, and Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan earns a higher salary than the Prime Minister, with his salary increasing nearly 2.3 times from 575,000 AMD to 1,320,000 AMD, compared to the Prime Minister’s salary of 1,200,000 AMD.

Efforts to pass this bill encountered public resistance and were thwarted two years ago. However, the authorities consistently pursued the path of increasing salaries. The justification for the proposal was that their earnings no longer matched the inflation seen in recent years. It is worth considering that only inflation seems to affect them. Incidentally, this proposal was presented by Levon Sargsyan from the 'My Step' council's 'Mission' party and group leader Armen Galjyan.

For the full article, please refer to today’s newspaper.