This article provides approximate net salaries at ELA, the European Labour Authority, located in Bratislava, Slovakia.

ELA is an EU agency that helps Member States and the European Commission to ensure that EU rules on labour mobility and social security coordination are enforced in a fair, simple and effective way. ELA also has an important role to play in facilitating and ensuring effective labour mobility in Europe, in particular by activities of European Employment Services (EURES). ELA was established in 2019.

Most EU institutions, including ELA, do a poor job in communicating their salary scales as they often indicate just the basic pay and little other detail, and quite many even fail to adjust it by the applicable Correction Coefficient. This is not helpful for people without experience in the EU system, and a hindrance for quite many staff members that consider changing their positions as this makes it really difficult to understanding a person’s future income. This article series will seek to address the lack of information on actual net salaries in EU institutions.

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:

To get an idea of your actual salary at ELA, 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 European Commission’s Correction Coefficient for Slovakia, so they present a realistic approximation of take-home pay/full remuneration package calculation.

As usual in these types of articles, there is the caveat that your precise salary can only be calculated by the EU institution’s HR department that knows your particular professional and personal circumstances.

The information below gives you a realistic estimate of what you can expect to earn at ELA. 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 ELA. You are a Belgian national (any nationality except Slovakian 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 ELA in Bratislava, your net take-home remuneration package would be around EUR 5394. A Slovakian national with a similar family situation would earn EUR 4545.

Contract Agent salaries at ELA

Administrator salaries at ELA

Assistant salaries at ELA

Secretaries and Clerks salaries at ELA

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. Paid during your initial onboarding period if you must change your residence to take up duties in Vilnius. Staff entitled to the household allowance (staff with a spouse or/and dependents) receive €55.40 per calendar day for up to 10 months (probation period plus one month). Staff without household allowance receive €44.68 per calendar day for 120 days.
• Installation allowance and coverage of removal costs (one-time payments). A lump sum granted upon completing your probationary period when moving your domicile. Single staff receive one month’s basic salary (minimum statutory floor of €937.77 for contract agents / €1,577.18 for temporary staff/officials). Staff relocating with family receive two months’ basic salary (minimum €1,577.18).
• Expatriation allowance or Foreign Residence allowance. Paid under Article 4 of Annex VII to officials who are not nationals of their host country and have not habitually resided or carried out their main occupation there during the five years ending six months before entering the service. It equals 16% of the sum of basic salary, household allowance, and dependent child allowances. Expats who are not entitled to the expatriation allowance get a foreign residents allowance that equals 4% of the basic salary amount.
• Household allowance. Calculated as a flat base of €241.21 plus 2% of basic salary for married officials, registered non-marital partners, or single parents with dependent children.
• Dependent child allowance. A flat payment of €527.06 per month per child, granted automatically up to age 18, or up to age 26 while the child is in full-time educational or vocational training.
• European School enrollment for children or Education allowance. Children of EU institutions staff enjoy free tuition at local European Schools. Where no European School is available, or for pre-school and university attendance, staff receive a statutory Education Allowance of €357.62 (subject to the correction coefficient). In certain cases, the education allowance is doubled to €715.24 per child per month.
• 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 grant. An annual flat-rate payment assisting expatriate staff and family members with travel to their official place of origin. Calculated based on kilometric distance (e.g., €268.04 for distances between 600 km and 1,200 km, and €536.00 for distances exceeding 1,200 km, with additional per-kilometre weighting).
• Birth & adoption grant.
• Parental leave allowance. Statutory leave grant of €1,289.65 per month (or €1,719.56 per month for single parents) during approved 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. Costs incurred upon the death of an official, their spouse, or dependent child are reimbursed up to a statutory ceiling of €3,365.18. If death occurs while on official mission, the costs of repatriating the body to the official’s place of origin are fully covered by the institution.
• Invalidity & Survivor Pensions: Comprehensive life, disability, and death social security/coverage. In case of accidental death related to duties, a lump sum of 5 times the annual basic salary is paid to eligible beneficiaries, with invalidity and orphan pensions ensuring partial income continuation.