The country’s average monthly salary has indeed increased, reaching 860 euros gross in 2025, but the others have not stood still either. In Serbia, the average gross monthly salary has reached 1,290 euros; in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1,245; in Montenegro, 1,203 euros; and in North Macedonia, 1,100 euros, according to a previous Monitor publication based on official data from the statistical agencies of the respective countries.

So far, the race for employees has been lost, as wages in the countries of the region continue to remain 30-50% higher than in Albania.

In fact, the prime minister has kept his promise, but only for himself and the country’s president.

“Monitor,” in cooperation with its correspondents in the Western Balkan countries, reports the salaries of the highest levels of government, such as the president and prime minister, in all 6 Western Balkan countries.

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania top the list in terms of salaries, while Albania is absolutely first for the salaries of top leaders in relation to the country’s average salary.

In Albania, the President has a gross monthly salary of 425 thousand lek, or 4,470 euros at the current exchange rate. His salary is 5.2 times higher than the average wage in the country.

The Albanian prime minister has an average gross monthly salary of 393 thousand lek, or 4,130 euros. His salary is 4.8 times higher than the country’s average and the highest among all prime ministers in the Balkans.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the administrative structure is complicated. Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have a single state president. Instead, it is led by a three-member Presidency representing the country’s three main ethnic communities.

The country has two prime ministers, one for each of its two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. For the prime ministers, the average gross salary, calculated as the average of the two salaries, is around 4 thousand euros, and for the presidents, the average is around 4,600 euros, the highest in the Balkans.

However, in relation to the country’s average salary, the difference is lower than in Albania (respectively 3.7 times for the president and 3.2 times for the prime minister) because of the higher wages in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In terms of net salaries, the Albanian president and prime minister lead the Balkans, as Bosnia and Herzegovina has a higher tax burden. The Albanian president’s net salary is around 320 thousand lek, or nearly 3,400 euros, compared with the presidential average of 3 thousand euros in Bosnia.

The Albanian prime minister is by far the highest-paid, as he receives a net 302 thousand lek, or nearly 3,200 euros, compared with 2,600-2,700 euros for Bosnia’s prime ministers. In fact, the Albanian prime minister has a higher net salary than the gross salaries of most of his counterparts in the Balkans.

The other Balkan countries, although they have higher average salaries, are more modest in the compensation of the top leaders who guide the country’s policies.

In Montenegro, the president has a gross salary of 2,700 euros, or 2.2 times above Montenegro’s average salary. The country’s prime minister has a salary at similar levels.

Serbia is the state that has managed to achieve the highest average gross salary in the region, but in contrast it pays the country’s leaders less.

The president has a gross salary of 338 thousand dinars, or 2,740 euros, only 2.1 times more than the average salary in the country. The prime minister has a gross salary of 282 thousand denars, or around 2,300 euros, 1.8 times above the average salary in the country.

In North Macedonia, salaries are not officially declared, but the media have reported that the president and prime minister each receive around 140 thousand Macedonian denars net, corresponding to a gross salary of 206 thousand denars, or around 3,300 euros, or three times above the country’s average salary.

In Kosovo, the president’s base gross monthly salary is 1,980 euros, or 1.64 times above the average salary in the country. The prime minister has a base gross salary of 1,870 euros (1.55 times above the average salary).

Leaders’ salaries in relation to the average

Albania is the country where the president and prime minister have the biggest gap with the country’s average salary, at about 5 times more.

The second-highest difference is in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at 3.2-3.7 times. Next comes North Macedonia, at around 3 times, followed by Kosovo at 2.6-2.8 times.

In Montenegro, top leaders’ salaries are 2.2 times above the average, and Serbia ranks last, where leaders earn less than double the average.

While Serbia has the highest average monthly salary in the Balkans and 50% more than in Albania, the Albanian president and prime minister have salaries respectively 63% and 80% higher than their Serbian counterparts.

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According to her, Tirana, which is presented by the Prime Minister as a European success story, in reality turns out to be the second most expensive city in Europe, where the average monthly salary is not enough to make it through the month.

She stresses that the figures are shocking.

According to the statement, a family of four, in which two adults are paid the average salary, is forced to use 89% of its income just for a normal standard of living, including food, rent and basic expenses. This, according to her, means that Albanian families are left with only 11% of their income for savings, investment, dealing with emergencies or even holidays.

Xhixho says that comparison with the region makes the failure of this governance even more evident. She says that in Skopje a family spends 67% of its monthly income on living expenses, while in Belgrade it is 68.2%. Also according to her, Albanian families with the official average monthly net salary of 760 euros, if they live alone, must spend at least 853 euros a month, which means they spend more than the salary they receive.

She describes the housing situation as equally dramatic, stressing that Tirana ranks as the second least affordable city in Europe according to the rent-to-salary ratio. According to her, rents consume more than 93% of local salaries and this clearly shows that for young people, young couples and ordinary families, housing has turned into an unattainable luxury.

The statement says that the government and the municipality continue to build a city for a handful of people who, according to her, have turned the construction sector into the main sector for laundering drug money and corruption proceeds.

She adds that public transport remains primitive and does not cover entire areas of Tirana. For this reason, according to her, for thousands of families a car is not a luxury, but a necessity to take children to school, to kindergarten or to go to work.

According to Xhixho, as soon as citizens buy a car, they immediately face another problem created by this governance: the lack of parking.

She states that in a city where construction is carried out without criteria on every square meter, 84% of Tirana residents constantly face difficulties finding a parking space. In the Municipality of Tirana’s parking facilities alone, according to her, citizens pay around 7 million euros a year. Meanwhile, in total, across all paid parking in the capital, citizens pay around 15 million euros a year, not including informal payments and parking costs in neighborhoods.

According to her, citizens not only live in one of the most expensive cities in Europe, but are also forced to pay millions of euros every year for parking, which has turned into an extraordinary cost and a daily concern amid the total chaos of a city that, according to her, has become unlivable.

She describes this as the real Tirana.

According to the statement, this is the Tirana that still does not have water 24 hours a day.

Likewise, she says this is the Tirana where there are still schools in which students study in two shifts.

She adds that this is the Tirana where public transport is far from European standards and where parking is a luxury.

According to her, this is also the Tirana where families cannot afford to buy a home, while every day new towers rise where one square meter costs at least 5,000 euros.

Xhixho states that while citizens struggle to cope with living expenses, the government continues to favor a development model that, according to her, serves money laundering, corruption and a handful of people connected to power.

She says these are just some of the reasons why hundreds of thousands of citizens are protesting every day today. According to her, Tirana has become unlivable for the majority and privileged for the minority, because citizens refuse to accept a capital where 89% of income goes to survival, where rents take more than 93% of salaries, where 84% of residents cannot find parking and where 15 million euros a year are paid for a service that is missing.

According to the statement, every citizen has a major family hardship that has brought them to that square.

She lists that someone has had their property stolen, someone is unemployed, someone’s children have left the country, someone is paid so little that they cannot even cover medicine and other expenses, someone cannot send their children to school because of rising costs, while someone else has a business but, according to her, is being crushed by the government through corruption and taxes.

In the end, Xhixho says there is only one solution, only one perspective and only one path: the departure of EDI RAMA and the most plundering government that, according to her, Albania’s history has ever seen.

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This scheme is known as “transitional pay” and guarantees former MPs a monthly payment for up to 12 months after the end of their mandate, even in cases when they are not re-elected and no longer hold any parliamentary function.

A scheme that costs the budget millions

From the last legislature, which was constituted on February 11 and dissolved on April 28, a former MP can cost the state budget approximately 23,000 euros over the course of a year, without carrying out any duty in the Assembly.

Meanwhile, the legislative institution remains non-functional, as a new constitution is awaited on the basis of the results from the snap parliamentary elections of June 7, which have still not been certified.

Data obtained from the Assembly of Kosovo show that out of a total of 120 MPs, 80 of them applied in May for the transitional pay of 1,914 euros.

This amount comes to around 153,000 euros a month from the state budget, or approximately two million euros a year.

Backed by law, but ethically debatable

Transitional pay is provided for by law, regardless of how long an MP’s mandate lasted or the fact that they no longer exercise the function.

The Law on the Rights and Responsibilities of the MP stipulates that former MPs may receive this compensation until they secure income from another source or a pension, but for no longer than 12 months.

Organizations that monitor the work of the Assembly assess that the last legislature, the tenth in a row, was ineffective.

According to the Kosovo Law Institute (IKD), from February to April, the Assembly held 24 sessions, mainly extraordinary ones, with rapid decision-making and no substantial debate.

IKD legal researcher Melos Kolshi says that although this payment is legal, it highlights a clear gap between the law and public ethics.

According to him, the main concern is related to the almost automatic implementation of this right, at a time when citizens are facing unemployment, a rising cost of living, and low wages.

He underlines that the issue does not have only a legal dimension, but also a moral one, stressing that each former MP should assess for themselves whether they truly need this compensation.

“If a former MP has the possibility of immediately returning to their profession or has other sources of income, then receiving transitional pay simply because the law allows it is difficult to justify from an ethical point of view,” Kolshi told Radio Free Europe.

“Unreasonable in an economy with challenges”

From an economic standpoint, this scheme is being viewed with even more criticism.

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Kosovo, Fehmi Mehmeti, calls this payment unjustifiable in the country’s current economic circumstances.

He says that, although the aim is to help former MPs transition, a cost of around two million euros a year is difficult to justify in an economy facing inflation and unemployment.

“Two million euros could be directed toward education, healthcare, support for young people, student scholarships or employment programs,” Mehmeti told Radio Free Europe.

According to the International Monetary Fund, economic activity in Kosovo has slowed, while inflation has risen over the past year.

Data from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics show that inflation in May reached 6.8 percent, mainly as a result of rising food prices.

In the first quarter of this year, the economy recorded growth of 5.4 percent, but experts assess that single-digit growth is not enough to significantly improve citizens’ well-being.

Unemployment remains at 10.9 percent, while the average monthly salary is 713 euros.

Calls to change the legal basis

Both Mehmeti and Kolshi believe that the legal basis should be reviewed, but that this right should not be removed entirely.

According to Kolshi, the core of the problem is not the existence of transitional pay, but the way it has been structured.

He proposes that the 12-month period be reconsidered, especially when parliamentary mandates, in practice, can last much less.

According to him, a more flexible model would be fairer and more proportional to the actual duration of the mandate.

“A fixed period of 12 months may not always be justified, so a shorter period or a gradual model that reduces compensation over time could be considered, depending on how long the legislature lasted,” Kolshi said.

Mehmeti suggests that transitional pay be limited to 3 to 6 months, or tied more closely to the length of parliamentary service.

“This would increase accountability and transparency in the use of taxpayers’ money… because in recent years election cycles have become more frequent, and consequently so have the payments,” he stressed.

A political scene with frequent elections

In just a year and a half, Kosovo has held three sets of parliamentary elections, an indicator of political instability that also directly affects the financial burden on the state.

After the June 7 elections, the Central Election Commission is expected to announce the final results by the end of the month, after which the new Assembly is also expected to be constituted.

Preliminary results show that the Vetëvendosje Movement has won 53 seats, the Democratic Party of Kosovo 22, the Democratic League of Kosovo 18, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo 7.

Twenty seats are reserved for minority communities, 10 of them for Serbs and 10 for other communities.

From the last legislature, 36 MPs have remained outside the Assembly, but the final number of beneficiaries of transitional pay will be known only after the formation of the Government, as some MPs are expected to be appointed ministers and vacate their mandates. / RFE

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