After the meeting, Minister of Culture Heidy Purga said the negotiations had been more substantive than ever before. "There is mutual understanding and that is the most important thing at the moment, that we are not peppering each other with accusations, but trying to find solutions together," Purga said.

The minister added that the Ministry of Culture has also set a target of making five percent cuts for both next year and the year after. "A total of 10 percent."

Purga explained that TALO's demands for a minimum wage for cultural workers was €2,036 per month, which would mean a total additional cost of €11-12 million.

"Where are we going to find that if we have now a mandate to make cutbacks?" Purga asked.

"Right now, my main task is to make sure that those organizations that are central to the delivery of cultural policy and content are the ones that will be affected least by this cut, and these are primarily the state institutions," Purga said, adding that the minimum wage for cultural workers would not rise next year.

Purga also said that she is not yet able to say where the five percent cut from the Ministry of Culture's budget will come from. "I'll say when the cut has been made," she said, adding that she will be meeting the heads of all the relevant agencies in the coming week.

Around 800 people earn the cultural workers' minimum

"The minimum wage for cultural workers began rising in 2015. When I started out as a theater manager, the salaries were around €670, now we have reached a minimum of €1,600," said Kristiina Alliksaar, Chancellor of the Ministry of Culture.

Alliksaar also stressed that it does not mean all cultural workers only receive the minimum.

"If there are 3,600 people working in the cultural sector, of which 2,400 are cultural workers with a higher education, 800, or around a third, earn the minimum."

Alliksaar also pointed out that the mean monthly salary of a cultural worker, according to the ministry's statistics, is €1,850 and the median salary is slightly higher than the current Estonian median.

"My point is that no one in the Ministry of Culture thinks that this is a fair wage for cultural workers. Of course these wages should be higher, but if we are talk about the facts, this is what they are."

The minimum wage for cultural workers who have completed higher education was last increased in 2023, when it rose from €1,400 to €1,600. In 2024, the minimum was not raised.

According to Estonian daily Postimees, in 2023 the average basic salary in the Ministry of Culture was €,3056 per month, with an average bonus of €199 making a total of €3,255.

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