Share to:

This article provides estimated net salaries at EEA, the European Environment Agency, located in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The European Environment Agency is an institution of the European Union that provides sound, independent information on the environment to those developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy. The EEA was legally established in 1993 and started its work in 1994. EEA is the coordinator of EIONET, the European environment information and observation network.

Most EU institutions, including EEA, do a notoriously poor job in communicating their salaries. Very often EU agencies and other EU institutions just indicate the gross basic pay without deductions and allowances, and quite many do not adjust it by the Correction Coefficient which can have a significant impact on an employee’s net take-home pay.

This makes it very hard for people without experience in the EU system to understand one’s actual future income, and is a hindrance for quite many people already employed in EU institutions that consider a career change.

This article series will seek to address the lack of information on actual net salaries in EU agencies and other institutions.

As usual for this type of information, bear in mind the caveat that your precise salary can be calculated only by the EU institution’s HR department that knows your particular professional and personal circumstances.

The salaries below are presented according to four typical personal/family situations of future employees:

• by type of contract (Contract Agent, Administrator, Assistant, Secretary and Clerk) and
• function group (FGI-FGIV, AD5-AD16, AST1-AST11, AST/SC1-AST/SC6).

The mentioned personal/family situations are:

Situation 01	Situation 02	Situation 03	Situation 04
Single local with no children	Married local with two children	Single expat with no children	Married expat with two children

To get an idea of your actual salary at EEA, you should look at the right cell in one of the four columns in the tables below that best corresponds to your personal/family situation. In calculating these values we have summed up not only the basic salary, but also the applicable allowances and deductions: household allowance, child allowances, expatriation allowance, pension contribution, sickness, accident and unemployment insurance, as well as community tax. All values in the last four columns are also adjusted by the relevant European Commission’s Correction Coefficient, so they present a realistic approximation of take-home pay/full remuneration package calculation.

The information below gives you a realistic estimate of what you can expect to earn at EEA. People interested in working for EU institutions often only look up the basic pay for their type of contract and grade. This is a mistake as the actual net salary can differ up or down quite a bit, compared to the basic salary.

If you want to understand what elements constitute the full salary package in the EU institutions and their weight in the total remuneration calculation, please read the article applicable to your type of contract: Contract Agents, Administrators, Assistants, Secretaries and Clerks.

How to read the tables

Here’s an explanation of how to read the tables below.

Let’s assume that you have applied for an AD6 Administrator’s vacancy in EEA. You are an Italian national (any nationality except Danish fits here) with a spouse and two children. From the table below you can deduct that your basic salary without any adjustments would be EUR 5669, however, by working for EEA in Copenhagen, your net take-home remuneration package would be around EUR 9141. A Danish national with a similar family situation would earn EUR 7702.

Contract Agent salaries at EEA

FUNC-TION GROUP	BASIC SALARY	COR-RECTION COEF-FICIENT	01| Single local with no children	02| Married local with 2 children	03| Single expat with no children	04| Married expat with 2 children
FG I step 1	2128	131.5	2467	3909	3232	4675
FG II step 4	2211	131.5	2550	3995	3315	4760
FG III step 8	2831	131.5	3243	4704	4071	5532
FG IV step 13	3624	131.5	4069	5541	5059	6541

Administrator salaries at EEA

FUNC-TION GROUP	BASIC SALARY	COR-RECTION COEF-FICIENT	01| Single local with no children	02| Married local with 2 children	03| Single expat with no children	04| Married expat with 2 children
AD 5	5011	131.5	5510	7027	6808	8325
AD 6	5669	131.5	6166	7702	7605	9141
AD 7	6414	131.5	6904	8459	8503	10058
AD 8	7258	131.5	7714	9292	9493	11071
AD 9	8211	131.5	8594	10195	10578	12180
AD 10	9291	131.5	9538	11168	11753	13384
AD 11	10512	131.5	10549	12212	13026	14690
AD 12	11893	131.5	11619	13318	14394	16093
AD 13	13457	131.5	12671	14412	15781	17522
AD 14	15225	131.5	13409	15213	17036	18840
AD 15	17227	131.5	14661	16519	18737	20596
AD 16	19491	131.5	15956	17877	20536	22458

Assistant salaries at EEA

FUNC-TION GROUP	BASIC SALARY	COR-RECTION COEF-FICIENT	01| Single local with no children	02| Married local with 2 children	03| Single expat with no children	04| Married expat with 2 children
AST 1	3058	131.5	3528	4996	4407	5874
AST 2	3459	131.5	3917	5394	4881	6358
AST 3	3914	131.5	4396	5886	5459	6948
AST 4	4429	131.5	4919	6422	6091	7594
AST 5	5011	131.5	5510	7027	6808	8325
AST 6	5669	131.5	6166	7702	7605	9141
AST 7	6414	131.5	6904	8459	8503	10058
AST 8	7258	131.5	7714	9292	9493	11071
AST 9	8211	131.5	8594	10195	10578	12180
AST 10	9291	131.5	9538	11168	11753	13384
AST 11	10512	131.5	10549	12212	13026	14690

Secretaries and Clerks salaries at EEA

FUNC-TION GROUP	BASIC SALARY	COR-RECTION COEF-FICIENT	01| Single local with no children	02| Married local with 2 children	03| Single expat with no children	04| Married expat with 2 children
AST/SC 1	2745	131.5	3145	4613	3974	5441
AST/SC 2	3106	131.5	3565	5033	4443	5911
AST/SC 3	3514	131.5	3909	5392	4909	6391
AST/SC 4	3976	131.5	4435	5925	5498	6988
AST/SC 5	4499	131.5	4992	6495	6163	7666
AST/SC 6	5090	131.5	5614	7131	6912	8429

Allowances and other benefits for EU institutions staff

Several allowances and other benefits can quite significantly boost an EU official’s income. This largely depends on whether the person is an expat and has a spouse and/or children. When considering a job at an EU institution, people too often do not take these benefits into account. Important – these benefits are available to Administrators in grades AD 5-16, Assistants in grades AST 1-11, Secretaries and Clerks in grades AST/SC 1-6, and Contract Agents in grades FG I-IV.

• Travel costs on taking up duties
• Daily subsistence allowance (during probation period)
• Installation allowance and coverage of removal costs (one-time payments)
• Expatriation allowance or Foreign Residence allowance
• Household allowance
• Dependent child allowance
• European School enrollment for children or Education allowance if there is no local EU school
• Healthcare costs reimbursement to a level of 80-85% through the EU’s Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme (JSIS) for the employee and any direct family members and dependents. 100% reimbursement of costs in case of a serious illness
• Accident insurance
• Annual travel compensation
• Birth grant
• Parental leave
• Unemployment allowance
• Removal expenses when leaving your home country and again when leaving your EU institution
• EU pension, survivors and orphan’s pensions, invalidity allowance
• Lump sum payments in case of permanent invalidity or death
• Lump sum funeral expenses, up to EUR 2350

Do you have question or suggestion for this article? Please share in a comment below and let’s make this resource better for you and other readers!

Share to: