Lukasz Gibala voluntarily cut his salary to the minimum to save Krakow's budget

City council approves minimum wage rate

Lukasz Gibala, who recently took office as president of Krakow, decided to voluntarily reduce his own salary to the lowest level provided for by current legislation. The city council unanimously supported this initiative during a session held on 21 October.

Initially, the head of the city council, Jakub Kosek, prepared a draft decision with maximum remuneration figures. According to it, the basic salary was to be 11,650 zloty gross, the functional allowance — 4,430 zloty, and the special allowance — 4,824 zloty.

However, Gibala himself proposed different figures. He chose the minimum basic salary of 9,320 zloty, a functional allowance of 3,544 zloty, and a special allowance of 3,859.20 zloty.

How much the city budget will save

Under the new terms, the total salary amount will be approximately 16,700 zloty gross per month. Taking into account the length-of-service allowance, the payment will reach 18,587 zloty.

For comparison, under the initial draft decision, the salary including the length-of-service allowance could have been significantly higher — 23,134 zloty.

Thus, the difference between the possible maximum and the chosen minimum is approximately 4,500 zloty per month. In annual terms, this means savings for the city budget of over 54,000 zloty.

Reasons for the new president's decision

Lukasz Gibala explained his choice by the financial situation in the city. He emphasised that Krakow has debts, so now is the time for austerity measures.

This is one of the first important decisions made by the new city president. Gibala officially took office on 20 October, after winning the second round of the elections, where he received over 62% of the voters' votes.