In the state sector, private sector, or international institutions: here are the jobs with the highest salaries in 2025

The average gross monthly salary in the country was 84 thousand lek in 2025, up from 77.4 thousand lek a year earlier. Wage differences are very large and depend on the workplace where you are employed.

Do you know which jobs have the highest salaries? “Monitor” has compiled a ranking based on data published by INSTAT.

International institutions rank first, paying employees more than double the country’s average salary.

The average gross monthly salary for 2025 was 189 thousand lek, or nearly 2 thousand euros at today’s exchange rate. Compared with 2024, salaries were 4% higher.

Second place for the best pay goes to “Financial and Insurance Activities.” Working in banking or insurance has always been a preferred choice for those who graduated in economics.

On average, a bank employee earned 160 thousand lek per month in 2025, or 6.7% more than the previous year (+10.1 thousand lek). This was the highest salary increase in absolute value in 2025 across all activities.

“Information and Communication” recorded the highest salary increase in absolute value among all other activities. IT employees are now among the best paid in the country, with 127.4 thousand lek per month, 10 thousand lek more than a year earlier (+8.9%).

“Mining and Quarrying” is a difficult job, but it offers the fourth-highest level of pay in the country, at 109 thousand lek per month, although this was down by nearly 3% compared with 2024.

“Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities” is a sector that has grown rapidly in recent years. In 2025, it paid employees an average of 105 thousand lek per month (+8.7 thousand lek).

Public sector salaries rose rapidly over the last three years, as the government used this as a strategy to align wages with the region and to encourage the private sector. The average salary in “Public Administration and Defence” exceeded 100 thousand lek for the first time in 2025 (104.5 thousand lek), while in 2022 it was 72.5 thousand lek, marking a 44% increase in three years.

The “Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply” activity had an average salary of 102.7 thousand lek in 2025 (+7 thousand lek). This sector is also indirectly linked to the state, as the biggest employers are public enterprises such as OSHEE and KESH.

In education, the average salary approached the 100 thousand lek level for the first time (99.3 thousand lek). Teachers’ salaries also rose rapidly over the last three years, following the policy applied to all state employees. In 2022, education paid an average of 70 thousand lek, or 30 thousand lek less than today.

Along the same lines, “Health and Other Social Work Activities” has also seen rapid growth over the last three years, but the average salary remains lower than that of teachers. In 2025, the average in this activity was 92 thousand lek, up from 68 thousand lek in 2022, an increase of 24 thousand lek.

Salaries for “Household Services” have also risen strongly in recent years. In 2014, this activity had an average salary of 29.5 thousand lek, equal to 65% of that year’s annual average (45.5 thousand lek).

In 2025, the average salary of household workers reached 77 thousand lek, or 91% of the average salary. The growing demand for this service, together with the formalization of workers, some of whom are foreigners, mainly Filipinos, has influenced this trend.

Among the activities that increased wages the most in 2025 were also real estate, as many real estate agencies have opened in recent years. In 2025, this activity paid an average of 84 thousand lek, or 8 thousand lek more than a year earlier (+10.7%). In construction, wages also rose by 12% in one year, to 69 thousand lek.

Salaries in Accommodation and Food Service Activities, although they are rising (+11.8%) as a result of demand for tourism workers, remain the lowest in the country apart from agriculture, at 56.4 thousand lek per month, compared with 55.5 thousand in agriculture./Monitor