This article provides approximate net salaries at EMA, the European Medicines Agency, located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

EMA is one of the largest EU agencies. Its mission is to foster scientific excellence in the evaluation and supervision of medicines, for the benefit of public and animal health in the EU. EMA began its operations in 1995. EMA ensures that all medicines available on the EU market are safe, effective and of high quality.

Most EU institutions, including EMA, do a notoriously 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 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 EMA, 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 the Netherlands, so they present a realistic approximation of take-home pay/full remuneration package calculation.

As usual in these types of articles, I have to add 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 information below gives you a realistic estimate of what you can expect to earn at EMA. 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 EMA. You are a Belgian national (any nationality except Dutch 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 EMA in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, your net take-home remuneration package would be around EUR 7667. A Dutch national with a similar family situation would earn EUR 6460.

Contract Agent salaries at EMA

Administrator salaries at EMA

Assistant salaries at EMA

Secretaries and Clerks salaries at EMA

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

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