Photo: Ethnos
Golden Boys proved to be over 60% of the employees in municipalities and local government organizations, according to a survey by the Ministry of Administrative Reforms and Electronic Governance. The people working in municipalities and town halls are receiving some of the highest salaries among the employees of the general public administration, although the organizations employing them are considered the most wasteful state structures with debts of billions of euros. However, many of those working there have received between € 50-90 thousand annual salaries in 2010 for positions such as an engineer, economist, administrator, responsible for culture, office manager, and even a general worker in the municipality.
The scattered public sector and its branches bringing together made the government request specific reports from local government organizations, which must include the budgets and a detailed list of wage costs in the relevant municipality. However, only 230 out of 325 municipalities obeyed the Ministerial orders and sent data on the costs and revenues in 2010. In summary, the data show that 60% of university graduates in municipalities receive annual income considerably higher than the average for the public administration. For engineering graduates, 53% are better paid than their counterparts in ministries and other public institutions and 55% of municipal workers with secondary education earn higher wages than high school graduates in other government agencies.
Since the beginning of its mandate, the government of George Papandreou has pledged to bring order to the salaries of civil servants, who today continue to receive an average salary significantly higher than in the private sector. Since January 1, 2011, Greece had to introduce a unified system of calculation and payment of public sector wages, which should minimize the injustices and disparities in civil servants’ salaries. Of course, the unified system had to result in reduction of much of the wage costs in the budget. It did not happen, first, because the number of civil servants in Greece was a mystery by mid-2010. It was also unclear what salary and allowances the specific employees receive, and then, because the government was unwilling to face the angry voters of PASOK, who have had a comfortable job for years.
The inspection of the Ministry of Administrative Reforms and Electronic Governance shows that at least 10% -15% of the employees in each municipality receive very high salaries for their job. The most typical examples are the municipalities of Kozani and Rhodes, where the economic situation is deplorable, but the general workers in the first municipality have received a little over € 56,700 a year and around € 43,000 in the second for 2010. The examples continue with a mechanical engineer from the municipality of Pieria who has received a total of€ 83,700 in 2010, a civil engineer in the municipality of Ioannina - € 80,700, a general manager in the municipality of Corfu - € 78,900 and electricians in the municipality of Pieria - € 61,000. Economists in the City Hall of Evros and Heraklion are bidding in the game "The employee of which municipality receives the most money" with salaries amounting to € 83,400 and € 82,600 respectively.