Estonia plans to raise salaries for teachers, rescuers and police officers — ERR News
Estonia plans to moderately raise salaries for teachers, cultural workers, rescuers and police officers as part of the 2027 state budget. Education and Research Minister Kristina Kallas said this during the resumption of negotiations with trade unions, ERR News reports.
Funding for four sectors
Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi said that the overall framework for next year's state budget has already been formed. According to him, all four sectors will receive the same amount of additional funding for wages.
Kallas said the increase would be small but did not name an exact percentage. Negotiations with the Estonian Education Personnel Union continued on Wednesday. The minister noted that, due to the difficult budget situation, spending in other areas would have to be cut to increase salaries.
Teachers' demands and budget constraints
The Estonian Education Personnel Union is seeking to raise teachers' minimum salary from the current €1,970 to €2,312, the projected average salary level in the country in 2027. Union chairman Reemo Voltri said that the government is moving away from its promise to bring teachers' pay to 120% of the country's average salary.
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On Tuesday, education workers held a one-hour warning strike: in kindergartens, it lasted from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., and in general education and vocational schools, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. According to the union, 69% of Estonian teachers considered leaving the profession over the past year because of workload and low pay.
Kallas said that if the economy grows by 2.4%, additional tax revenue could amount to up to €350 million. At the same time, about €200 million, she said, would automatically be directed to indexed expenditures, including pensions and parental benefits. Among possible ways to save money, she named abandoning the launch of new real estate investments and reviewing infrastructure spending.
The government is to discuss the budget again at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday and plans to finalize it on Monday before submitting it to the Riigikogu.
