UN salaries: What you need to know

By Ingrid Ahlgren14 October 2009

The United Nations pays its employees well — so much so that field workers amass savings. Photo by: PhotoRack

Many United Nations employees will tell you the pay is good. Field staff in particular tends to accumulate savings.

According to James Luko, who spent 12 years with the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Croatia, Sarajevo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, most U.N. workers are exempt from paying their home country taxes.

“If you work in the field, there isn’t much to spend your money on, so people can really save their money,” he said.

As an international civil service, salaries at the U.N. are fairly standard across the family of agencies. They only differ depending on the employee category.

About the author

Ingrid Ahlgren

Ingrid is a Devex correspondent based in New York City. She worked as a staff writer for Vault.com from 2007 to 2009, helping to write guidebooks, including the "Vault Guide to the Top Government and Nonprofit Employers." Before moving to New York, she was a researcher for National Geographic Traveler magazine in Washington, D.C. Ingrid holds a master's in journalism from the University of Missouri. As the daughter of a U.S. diplomat, she grew up all over the world.