Employees and administrative staff in Albanian municipalities will receive from 20 to 40 percent more in their salary. From the current wage of 93.000 ALL, the local government employee will receive an average of 111600 ALL gross salary in the worst case and 130,200 ALL in the best case. The rate of gross salary increase for employees of 61 municipalities was approved in principle at Monday's meeting of the Consultative Council, Central-Local Government. 
"It is a constant request of the local government to make a balance and why not, an equalization of the salary level of the specialist at the local level with the specialist at the central one. This is because many municipalities suffer from a lack of human resources. So they have issued calls for various vacancies, but they have no applications," Adelina Farrici, Executive Director of the Association for Local Autonomy, told A2 CNN. 
In addition to the increase in salaries to close the gaps, employees of the municipalities will be treated the same as their colleagues who work in ministries and other central government positions. "Calculation of seniority at work will be done at the central level, as it has been discriminatory until now. Specialists will also be equalized, regardless of the population in the municipality where they work," said Farrici. 
According to the preliminary document, the government will support municipalities by covering the minimum wage of employees. "We request that there be a fund slightly higher than the coverage of the minimum wage, as there are many municipalities that cannot afford it with their own funds alone." 
The salary increase will also affect the mayors of the 61 municipalities, who will have a different calculation formula than the one applied so far. The details are expected to be published after the Ministry of Finance and the government approve the financial bill that will bring about a salary increase for nearly 37,000 local administration employees.