18 to 2 for the private sector in the top 20 municipalities by pay
Last week, the IME published data on salaries by municipalitiy for 2019. Traditionally, the topic provoked comments about the division along the axis of the private-public sector. Today we publish detailed data on salaries in the private and public sector by municipalities. The data refer to the average gross monthly salary of employees.
The detailed data on salaries show that the private sector plays a leading role in almost all municipalities in the “top 20” by size of the average salary in the country. Only in the municipalities with a very strong energy sector is the situation different – high salaries come from the public sector in Kozloduy and Radnevo, while in Galabovo they are high in both the public and private sector. For all others in “top 20” – be it Chelopech, Pirdop and Panagyurishte in the Srednogorie or the industrial Devnya, Bozhurishte and Maritsa close to the big cities, the private sector generates higher salaries.
In reality, the leaders among the municipalities by salaries in the private sector are not that different from the common ranking for Bulgaria. Chelopetch [1], Pirdop (1,984 BGN) and Sofia municipality (1,794 BGN) take the leading three places. The last two report good growth of around 10% for 2019. After them come Galabovo (1,762 BGN), Devnya (1,700 BGN), Suvorovo (1,623 BGN), Elin Pelin (1,544 BGN), Panagyurishte (1,488 BGN), Bozhurishte (1,436 BGN) and Beloslav (1,420 BGN). The impressive strong growth in Elin Pelin (18% in 2019) reflects the possibilities in the wide periphery of the capital.
20 municipalities register average gross monthly salary in the private sector under 600 BGN. in 2019. These are almost entirely very small municipalities, such as Tran and Batak, where employees in the private sector are usually few, while manufacturing plants are either totally absent, or in spheres where manual unskilled labor and low pay are predominant. And while these 20 are rather marginal examples, another 53 municipalities report average gross monthly salary of the employed in the private sector between 600 and 700 BGN. Among them are many municipalities with a diverse profile, but also many resort municipalities – Velingrad, Tsarevo and Separeva banya are part of this group.
The ranking by salaries in the public sector looks very different. The first three places [2] for 2019 are taken by the familiar Kozludui (2,722 BGN), Radnevo (2,045 BGN) and Gylybovo (1,688 BGN). The big municipalities follow suit – Sofia (1,582 BGN), Varna (1,393 BGN) and Plovdiv (1,333 BGN). “Top 10” for salaries in the public sector is closed by Devnya (1,332 BGN), Belovo (1,296 BGN) and Burgas (1,285 BGN). The specifics of the salaries in the public sector – with a big role of the administration and spheres such as education, suggests closer pay-levels in the majority of the municipalities. Only 16 municipalities report average gross salary in the public sector under 800 BGN. in 2019.
This distribution implies that in most Bulgarian municipalities the average public sector salary overtakes the one in the private sector. In 56 municipalities the private sector salary exceeds the one in the public sector – in the Srednogorie and the industrial municipalities around the big cities the difference is 1.5-2 times higher in the private sector. In the other 209 municipalities, however, the average public sector salary is higher, and in two cases it is equal to the one in the private sector. The difference in some of them – Kozloduy and Radnevo for instance, can also reach up to twice the size, but this time in favor of the public sector.
Besides the capital, where the private sector leads in salaries, among the big municipalities the public sector remains superior. In Plovdiv and Varna municipalities, for instance, the private sector salary equals 80-82% of the one in the public sector. There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, the industry with higher salaries is resettled in the periphery of these cities, thus on the territory of neighboring municipalities. At the same time these municipalities have very strong social functions, and concentrate high-paying public institutions. Salaries in education and healthcare in Varna, for example, are among the highest in the municipality, while 2019 saw an overtaking ascent of teacher salaries.
[1] The data for the average salary in the private sector in Chelopech municipality are strongly confidential. Nonetheless, aware of the high average salary in the municipality, and of the pay-levels in the public sector, we can confirm the primacy of municipality Chelopech. Municipality Mirkovo remains the only one outside the ranking, as in this case the data are confidential as much for the average salary in the private sector as for the entire municipality. Most likely, in consideration of the available data, municipality Mirkovo would be among the leaders in the country.
[2] The data for the salary in the public sector is confidential for the municipality of Sopot. It is possible that the average salary in the public sector in Sopot – due to the presence of a very big public company, is among the highest in the country.
