Minister: Economic outlook allows for wage hikes next year in culture and sport
The economic forecast published on Tuesday favors wage increases in the areas of culture, folk culture, and sports, Minister of Culture Heidy Purga (Reform) said, adding her goal is to do so next year.
Sport in Estonia falls under the culture ministry's remit.
"The economic forecast published on Tuesday rather favors opportunities for wage rises in the cultural field, folk culture, and sports. As I have said earlier, the issue of wages for cultural workers, coaches, and song and dance festival collective leaders is my priority in the current budget negotiations," said Purga.
It is important that people working specifically in these fields are held as valued, she went on.
"We must keep in view above all else the people who do this work – those who create content every day, who deal daily with our heritage and also with people's exercise, if we are talking about coaches. All this is based strongly on valued people. The last wage increase for cultural workers, coaches, and collective leaders was in 2023. At that time, it rose from €1,400 to €1,600. Coaches' wages rose from €1,020 to €1,400, and in addition, at that time, leaders were provided with extra wage hike resources for wage funds. This time out, we will treat these groups similarly. The priority is to ensure that these wage differentials do not peel apart when compared with representatives of other fields," the minister went on.
Purga said the ministry is not only focusing only on the minimum wage but also on the wage fund provided to foundations, public law, and legal institutions, under the ministry's administration.
"Alongside raising the national minimum salary for cultural workers with higher education, it is also vital to grow the overall wage fund," Purga said, adding this fund gives leaders the ability to "adequately remunerate those who need it the most," as decided by that institution's chief.
Purga also said that it was not possible to speculate at present how much or what percentage of the budget could benefit each field, given 2026 state budget negotiations are ongoing, though she said by September 11 "these results should be completely clear."
"Certainly, raising the minimum is necessary to some extent, but so is the wage fund. What those proportions can and will be – that will become clear according to possibilities, but as I said, rather this economic forecast favors opportunities for wage increases," Purga added.
The Ministry of Finance summer forecast put inflation for this year at 5.4 percent, with a projected fall to 3.5 percent next year thanks to a slowdown in food and service price rises. GDP growth will rise to 2.5 percent next year, the forecast stated
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Johanna Alvin
Source: Interview by Tõnu Karjatse
