For every two people employed in the private sector, there are now three people in the public sector plus pensioners. The average gross salary in the public sector at the end of last year was 9% higher than that in the private sector. For civil servants, the difference is 21%, and if you subtract the social security contributions that they do not pay, the difference becomes even greater. This is shown by an analysis conducted by the senior economist at "Open Society" Georgi Angelov.
In „Hello, Bulgaria” on NOVA, he emphasized that in fact „the picture is a little more complicated”. „Bulgaria's population is decreasing. Since 2019 alone, it has fallen by about half a million people. Accordingly, there are fewer people in the country. In the private sector, 344 thousand fewer people work, while in the state sector the number of employed remains approximately the same. This is absurd, because the public sector serves the population. When the population decreases, it is logical that this should also happen with the public sector. But this is not happening”, he explained.
According to him, 26.3% of those working are already in the public sector of the economy, with this share growing in recent years. According to him, it is “normal” for less than 20% to work in the state administration and structures, as it was about 7-8 years ago.
Salaries in the public sector are growing, the economist reported. “We have also seen the protests, the collapse of the budget and the government, because in order to support this large public sector, the budget is no longer enough and there is discussion of increasing taxes and social security contributions”, he recalled.
According to Angelov, the private sector cannot absorb more and more taxes, especially when the number of employees in it is decreasing. “If we pressure the private sector with higher taxes and at the same time encourage employment in the public sector, we move people from the real economy to the state economy. And then there will be no one to produce”, he reminded.
And he added: “Civil servants, as well as employees in the Ministry of Interior and the judiciary, do not pay part of the social security contributions, while those working in the private sector do. There is a distribution between the employer and the employee, but the employee pays his share - something that does not apply to civil servants. That is where this large difference in pay comes from”.