Collective agreement negotiations for healthcare workers will not start until August, but doctors, nurses and caregivers have already laid out their positions. Extra money will need to be allocated from the state budget.

In the last quarter of 2023, the average monthly wage was €1,904.

Katrin Rehemaa, head of the Estonian Medical Association (Eesti Arstide Liit), highlighted the large deficit of medical workers across Estonia. She said both salaries and working conditions need to improve.

"While last year's wage increase averaged around ten percent, we would like to maintain roughly similar proportions for the next two years," said Rehemaa.

Under this agreement, the hourly wage for doctors will rise from €19.70 to approximately €21.70, or by around €350 a month.

Nurse's hourly wages would rise to €13.20 and care workers to €8.40. Additionally, workers are calling for an increase in pay for weekend and night shifts.

"We would like to be paid at least 1.45 times for night hours and 1.35 times for weekend hours," said Rehemaa. Thy are currently 1.40 and 1.25.

Teachers want to move quickly towards promised salary

According to the Ministry of Finance's spring forecast, the average salary should rise by 5 percent in the coming year. Teachers are also expecting more.

Reemo Voltri, head of the Estonian Educational Personnel Union (Haridustöötajate liit), said the coalition made a promise last year to raise teachers' salaries to 120 percent of the average salary by 2027.

Educators plan to argue for this by 2025. Voltri said a teacher's minimum salary should be the same as the national average salary.

However, he acknowledged that the most important thing is to agree on steps to meet the 2027 goal.

"But surely teachers' salaries must continue to move closer to this average next year, not further away," Voltri stressed, adding that it will not be enough if teachers' salaries grow at the same pace as the average salary in the coming year. "Because it might be a bit naive of us to hope that there will be a huge leap in 2026 and 2027."

The average salary of a teacher this year is €2,184. To meet the 2027 goal, it should rise by €500. This would be an increase of 7-8 percent a year.

Rescue Board expects minimum wage to rise by 13 percent

Margo Klaos, the general director of the rescue agency, said this year the agency could not increase salaries with internal funds.

"We actually had to reduce our salary budget at the beginning of 2024 due to the cutback decisions made in 2022," said Klao. "We closed down the Kopli rescue station and instead we laid off rescuers."

The Ministry of Interior has gathered salary expectations from its administrative area for the upcoming budget negotiations and will present a proposal.

Klaos said a lifeguard deserves a salary equivalent to at least 1.2 times the average salary.

"But given the state of Estonia's national budget, we now have significantly reduced this wage ambition, and we hope that in the next few years, rescuers will be able to earn at least the average salary in Estonia," he said.

Klaos added that if someone wants to work as a rescuer now, they will be paid €1,460 per month outside of Tallinn.

"And when they have studied for a year and start working on call shifts, they will start to get extra pay for night shifts. This means that their salary will rise to a little more than €1600," he explained. "With this amount of money, it is getting harder and harder to recruit rescuers today."

The agency wants the minimum wage to rise by 13 percent next year.

"And over a total of four years, there would be a 39 percent increase in the minimum wage," said Klaos. This means an additional request of around €70 million over four years. 

After salaries, the Rescue Board's second priority is civil defense. "The greatest need is for shelters," Klaos said. There are two solutions for creating shelters.

"One of them is where the state subsidizes, with very large sums, the adaptation of basements of apartment buildings and underground floors of public buildings as shelters. The other option, which is more likely to go through, is that the amendment would make it compulsory for everyone to do it themselves within a certain timeframe," Klaos explained.

It would take more time to adapt apartment buildings, but it would be significantly cheaper for the state. But in this case, Klaos said the agency also needs the warning siren system to expand and increase its capacity for large-scale evacuations.

PPA needs €165 million over four years for salaries

Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) Director General Egert Belitšev said front-line employees should receive a wage equivalent to at least 1.2 times the average salary.

Like the Rescue Board, the PPA also considered the tight budget when setting its negotiating positions.

"Today's target to reach at least 1.1 times Estonia's average wage by 2027," Belitšev said.

This year, the minimum wage for police officers is approximately 0.95 percent of the average wage. To move towards the 2027 goal, the PPA expects an 11 percent increase in minimum salary in 2025. If the increase is less, the future increase angle needs to be steeper.

"Over the next four years, this would mean an additional need of €165 million," Belitšev said. The PPA still has several expectations for the budget negotiations, he added.

About €500 million is needed in the coming year to acquire equipment for monitoring the border, both for the Narva River and overlooked areas. Additionally, €2 million is needed to update patrol equipment, €3 million for updating technology installed on helicopters, and €1.5 to create additional resources to fight cybercrime.

"But our most critical need is money for salaries," Belitšev emphasized. "Because PPA's work is one where our greatest value lies in our people."

He said 600 people have already reached retirement age.

"This means that certainty about salaries and a positive outlook for the future are essential if the PPA is to do its job," the director general added. 

Eliminating the tax hump will not ease wage expectations

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) has already said public sector salary increases are unlikely next year, given the budget deficit. She said the elimination of the minimum taxable income threshold will "significantly" raise salaries. Kallas said teachers will receive €100 more a month than they do now.

But others do not agree.

"We have a problem with the succession of teachers, as their pay and working conditions are not competitive compared to those of other graduates," said Reemo Voltri and noted that the tax hump will disappear for everyone. "And so the competitiveness of teachers' salaries will in no way improve, and in terms of the next generation it will in no way put us in a better position."

Margo Klaos also stated that the rescuers are waiting for salary increases instead. "Talking to my teammates, unfortunately, I have not heard that this will in any way significantly alleviate their income and wage situation," he said.

Belitšev agreed with Voltri and said the situation would affect everyone. It does not help police officers or rescue workers any more than everyone else.

"For us, it is important that the field of internal security and the work of police officers is sufficiently valued in society. That the state sends out a signal that it makes sense to become a policeman and that the salary will still be competitive in three or four years' time," he said.

The Doctor's Union is also not impressed. "It affects everyone individually and not everyone individually," said Katrin Rehemaa. "We are still talking about what should be the level of salaries of the various health professionals, and surely these salaries must go up."

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