MK (Likud) Miki Zohar is moving an initiative to grant a NIS 5,000 monthly raise for cabinet ministers, MKs, and judges, a raise that would be tiered base on seniority. Finance Ministry officials object, explaining such a move would cost the state about 100 million shekels annually.

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation will discuss a proposed law by MK Zohar, aimed at significantly increasing the salaries of the prime minister, ministers, Knesset members and judges. The proposal sets a new salary scale among politicians and judges on the basis of their level of seniority.

In January, the salaries of the ministers and the prime minister were updated. After the update, the salaries of the prime minister and the Knesset speaker are NIS 49,500 a month. According to Zohar’s bill, the salaries of the two will be NIS 56,000 a month after the increase. The salary of the President of the High Court, which is not NIS 46,000 a month, will be the same as the prime minister’s.

The salary of the ministers, which was equal to NIS 44,000 in January, is expected to jump by NIS 5,000 a month, according to Zohar’s proposal, to NIS 49,000 a month. The salaries of deputy ministers were increased in January from 36,000 to NIS 39,000 and in line with the bill, it would be increased to NIS 46.000.

Zohar also wants to see the salaries of MKs increased from NIS 39,000 to NIS 42,500.

The aim of the proposal is to regulate the mechanisms by which the salaries of ministers, MKs and judges are determined, and to determine all of them in relation to the salary of the President of the State. Historical decisions have led to differences between them. Thus, for example, the salaries of MKs are close to the average wage in the economy, whereas the salaries of the ministers are linked to the price index.

According to Zohar’s proposal, the president’s salary – and all the other senior members of the public sector close to him – will be determined by a public committee that will be set up specifically for this purpose. Zohar also proposes that the president’s salary be updated on January 1, according to the average between the rate of increase in the consumer price index and the average wage in the past year. The public committee established for this purpose may determine that in a certain year or part of it, the wage will not be updated.

The public committee will consist of three members who were not active in the political system prior to the appointments. One of them an academic appointed by the President of the State, the other a former judge of the Supreme Court or the District Court, and the third to be appointed by the Chief Rabbis of Israel.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)