The monthly ‘basic salary’ for Contract Agents in function group II (FG II) in the European Commission ranges from EUR 2211 for grade I step I to EUR 3624 for grade 7 step 7. The amount of basic salary depends on which grade (4-7) and step in each grade (1-7) the staff member finds herself in.
Basic salary
This article covers the topic of salary for Contract Agents in Function Group II (FGII) (‘agent contractuel’ in French) in the European Commission. The information about FGI salary also directly applies to staff of the European Parliament, European Council, EU agencies and all other EU institutions.
RELATED ARTICLES ON CONTRACT AGENT SALARIES:
* Salary of Contract Agents FGI
* Salary of Contract Agents FGIII
* Salary of Contract Agents FGIV
ARTICLES ON ADMINISTRATORS AND ASSISTANTS SALARIES:
* Salary of Assistants AST4
* Salary of Administrators AD5
* Salary of Administrators AD7
When being hired by EU institutions, new FGII staff usually start out in step 1 of grades 4 or 5, depending on the length of work experience. If your work experience is under 5 years, it’s grade 4 and EUR 2211 in initial basic salary. If your work experience is over 5 years, it’s grade 5 and EUR 2502 in initial basic salary.
Once hired, your pay increases every two years as you advance by one step through the salary scales. You salary can increase faster if you are reclassified to a higher step or even grade as a result of good performance in the annual ‘appraisal exercise’.
The highest indicated number of EUR 3624 is for FGII staff that would have spent over 40 years in EU institutions while still staying in function group II. However, you are almost certain to find a position in a different function group with higher pay in a few years once you are within the “EU system”, attain work experience and build your network.
| Grade | Step | Starting basic salary |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 | EUR 2211 |
| 5 | 1 | EUR 2502 |
| 6 | 1 | EUR 2830 |
| 7 | 1 | EUR 3203 |
Complete remuneration package
Knowing the monthly ‘basic salary’ does not tell you much about your final take-home pay and the full remuneration package. There are two reasons for this.
Firstly, the basic salary can make up anything between ~85% and 130%+ or more of your total remuneration package depending on whether you are entitled to the various allowances. This is especially so if you are an expat or/and have children.
Secondly, the country you are employed in has a significant impact on your total salary due to the European Commission ‘Correction Coefficient‘. Brussels is used as reference, so if you work for EU institutions in Belgium, you get 100% of your salary and allowances. However, if you work for an EU agency in Scandinavia, your salary and allowances will upped by 18-31% to compensate for higher living costs. Conversely, if you will work for the EU in Bulgaria, you will get only 55% of what your Brussels colleague gets due to what Eurostat considers are lower living costs. More on the impact of the Correction Coefficient below.
Contract agents’ remuneration by family and residence status
Below is a sample calculation of a FG II (grade 4, step 1) take-home pay with allowances for four common scenarios for a Contract Agent employed in Brussels, Belgium. If you are in a higher grade, you can do a rough estimate of your salary by adding the difference between basic pay in grade 4 and your actual grade.
| Situation 1 | Situation 2 | Situation 3 | Situation 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single Belgian national with no children | Married Belgian national with two children | Single Italian national with no children | Married Italian national with two children |
| Contract agent FGII |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Pay EUR | 2211 | 2211 | 2211 | 2211 |
| Household allowance | 0 | 241 | 0 | 241 |
| Dependent child allowance | 0 | 858 | 0 | 858 |
| Expatriation allowance 16% | 0 | 0 | 582 | 582 |
| Pension contribution 10.10% | -223 | -223 | -223 | -223 |
| Sickness insurance contribution | -38 | -38 | -38 | -38 |
| Accident insurance contribution | -2 | -2 | -2 | -2 |
| EU tax | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unemployment Insurance contribution | -9 | -9 | -9 | -9 |
| TOTAL REMUNERATION | 1939 | 3038 | 2521 | 3620 |
N.B. Please treat the above values only as indicative, because only your EU institution can do a precise calculation based on your individual circumstances and the full set of EU rules.
On top of the above, children would either be guaranteed a place in the European School, or a single Education Allowance per child. The expat family would also get around 1000 EUR annually per family member as a Travel Grant considering the distance to Rome.
European Commission 2022 salary scale for Contract agents FGII
| FGII | Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Step 5 | Step 6 | Step 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 7 | 3202,52 | 3269,14 | 3337,12 | 3406,52 | 3477,40 | 3549,72 | 3623,54 |
| Grade 6 | 2830,43 | 2889,28 | 2949,38 | 3010,73 | 3073,34 | 3137,27 | 3202,52 |
| Grade 5 | 2501,54 | 2553,56 | 2606,68 | 2660,91 | 2716,24 | 2772,74 | 2830,43 |
| Grade 4 | 2210,88 | 2256,87 | 2303,82 | 2351,74 | 2400,64 | 2450,58 | 2501,54 |
Impact of Correction Coefficient on FGII basic pay
The below table shows you the actual Contract Agent FGII basic pay according to the location of your institution. You can read a dedicated article about the Correction Coefficient.
| Location of EU institution | Correction Coefficient | Actual Basic Pay (EUR) |
|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam | 111.4 | 2463 |
| Athina | 85.2 | 1884 |
| Berlin | 101.4 | 2242 |
| Bratislava | 79.9 | 1767 |
| Brussels | 100 | 2211 |
| Bucuresti | 68.5 | 1515 |
| Budapest | 76.1 | 1683 |
| Dublin | 133.6 | 2954 |
| Helsinki | 118.6 | 2622 |
| Karlsruhe | 96.9 | 2142 |
| København | 134.2 | 2967 |
| Lefkosia | 82.2 | 1817 |
| Lisboa | 91.4 | 2021 |
| Ljubljana | 84.9 | 1877 |
| Luxembourg | 100 | 2211 |
| Madrid | 96.3 | 2129 |
| München | 113.4 | 2507 |
| Paris | 119.9 | 2651 |
| Praha | 88.1 | 1948 |
| Riga | 80 | 1769 |
| Roma | 95.2 | 2105 |
| Sofia | 61.7 | 1364 |
| Stockholm | 130.3 | 2881 |
| Tallinn | 86.3 | 1908 |
| Valletta | 94 | 2078 |
| Varese | 91.2 | 2016 |
| Vilnius | 80.1 | 1771 |
| Warszawa | 70.6 | 1561 |
| Wien | 109.6 | 2423 |
| Zagreb | 78.3 | 1731 |
Take into account that your allowances will also be adjusted by the Correction Coefficient. If you will work not in Brussels, but in another EU location, you should multiply the grand total values in the “scenarios table” to get the actual approximate figure.
Function Groups and corresponding types of duties
The below table presents an overview of what kind of tasks each function group of contract agents is expected to carry out. Note the wording “under the supervision of officials or temporary staff”. In practice, the situation most often is different. Very often there is little difference between the tasks FG III and FG IV carry out, it’s a little bit of a lottery in which function group your position happens to fall. Also, once you start working in these two grades, you might soon notice that the tasks you carry out differ little from what temporary agents AD5 and AD6 perform. The main reason for this situation is the aftermath of the 2008-9 economic crisis when EU Member States exerted pressure on the European Commission to decrease costs. Someone came up with the “clever” solution to administratively “devolve” many positions and tasks from AD to CA positions, without much change to the substance of the tasks performed.
| Function group | Grades | Duties |
| IV | 13 to 18 | Administrative, advisory, linguistic and equivalent technical tasks, performed under the supervision of officials or temporary staff. |
| III | 8 to 12 | Executive tasks, drafting, accountancy and other equivalent technical tasks, performed under the supervision of officials or temporary staff. |
| II | 4 to 7 | Clerical and secretarial tasks, office management and other equivalent tasks, performed under the supervision of officials or temporary staff. |
| I | 1 to 3 | Manual and administrative support service tasks, performed under the supervision of officials or temporary staff. |
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
This article is based on the European Commission Staff Regulations and other publicly available information such as EU institutions’ vacancy announcements.
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6 responses to “Contract Agents Function Group FG II salary”
Could you clarify, if a single contract agent (GFII) in service gets married or enters into a legal cohabitation with a partner, does his or her base salary increase as compared to the salary for a single person?
Change in legal status does not change the basic salary. Marriage / civil union only entitle you to a longer DSA payment period (10 instead of 4 months) and the Household allowance.
I know someone in this position and when we looked at his payslip, we saw that under “tax”, no deductions are made. Are you sure that taxes apply to everyone? This person is a contract employee.
As far as I know, all staff categories pay the Community tax and the Solidarity levy. The system is progressive, so lower staff categories pay less in taxes. I have an article about the tax brackets:
So is it correct that for a FG II function, even with more than 15 years of experience outside EU institutions, I would still be hired in grade 5?
That’s correct. However, if you have an offer for an FG II position, I’d suggest taking it, and then keeping an eye out for FGIII or even FGIV positions. Besides, all of the other benefits are the same irrespective of your function group – see this article: https://euemployment.eu/advantages-of-working-for-the-european-commission/