EuropeAid salary scales: A primer

EuropeAid and other EU institutions may offer lower pay than other international organizations, but they remain popular nonetheless: Competitions for civil servant vacancies attract 10,000 job seekers on average. The remuneration of EuropeAid employees depends on their job type and seniority. Permanent staff are divided into 16 grades, all but the highest of them comprising five steps, or salary levels. Contract staff fall into 16 grades with seven steps each. Pay “was practically frozen” in 2010 after increasing by a meager 0.1 percent, not much if you consider inflation in Brussels, where the majority of EU staff are based, was at 2.4 percent, according to the European Commission. Performance determines promotion from one grade to another; advancement to the next step is automatic every two years. Officials tend to stay within one grade for three to six years, according to the European Personnel Selection Office. Salaries of contract agents. Source: European Commission Salaries of permanent staff. Source: European Commission Deductions The grades indicate gross salaries, from which taxes and contributions are deducted. EuropeAid staff members do not pay national taxes, but they pay progressive and special levies that then go into the EU budget. The progressive tax ranges from 8 percent to 45 percent depending on the person’s gross salary. The special levy, meanwhile, amounts to 5.5 percent of salary. EuropeAid employees pay value-added tax on top of local, property and other levies imposed by government in places where they work. Salary adjustments Each year, salaries of staff at EuropeAid and other EU institutions are adjusted to reflect the changes in purchasing power or real salaries of civil servants in EU member states. The commission uses eight member states — Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg — to draw its sample for its evaluation to determine the adjustment. The adjustment, however, is suspended, in case of a “serious and sudden deterioration in the economic and social situation” within the EU. This procedure refers to the exception clause. The final amount of an EU employee’s salary depends on the so-called correction coefficient, which accounts for the disparate costs of living found in the places where staff members work and live. The higher the coefficient, the higher the pay. For instance, in the last assessment, salaries of employees stationed in Varese, north of Italy, were adjusted downward because costs of living were determined to be 9 percent lower than in Brussels, said Cristiano Sebastiani, a representative of the trade union Renouveau et Démocratie. Although the coefficient only affects nominal salary values, the perception of a lower salary could make some destinations less attractive, said Antonio Gravili, spokesman of European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič. Staff reform The European Commission has proposed reforms that would impact disposable incomes of staff at EuropeAid and its sister EU organizations. Under the plan, the special levy would continue and may even increase, the method for adjusting salaries would change, and the exception clause would be automatically triggered under certain conditions.