2018 the minimum rate of pay for culture professionals shall be raised to 1,300 euros.
On 27 December, Indrek Saar, the Minister of Culture, and Ago Tuuling, the chairman of the management board of the Estonian Employees’ Unions’ Confederation, signed a wage contract of culture professionals. Pursuant to the contract, as of 2019, the minimum rate of gross pay of a culture professional shall be raised to 1,300 euros per month. In addition, the wages of these highly educated culture professionals and support staff who now receive an above-minimum pay or who work on professions providing support services shall be raised. The payroll of these employees will increase by 7%. The agreed pay-raise concerns culture professionals who are paid from the state budget. These include employees of public authorities, public institutions (Estonian National Opera), foundations (Vanemuine), and county libraries who are paid by the state. This concerns culture professionals with higher education, higher professional standards, or employees with specific knowledge that are equivalent to the higher education requirement – including ballet artists.