Business
Armenia Approves Doubling of Top Officials' Pay at AMD 25bn Cost
September 20, 2026
3
Min
Armenia's government has approved a draft package of amendments that would roughly double the salaries of the country's most senior state officials from 1 January 2027, at an additional budget cost of more than 25 billion drams (about $69 million) in the first year.
The cabinet backed the changes to the Law on Remuneration of Persons Holding State Positions and State Service Positions at its session on Thursday 17 September. The package still requires approval by the National Assembly before it takes effect.
The numbers
Under the draft, the prime minister's monthly pay rises from roughly 1.5 million drams to 2,662,000 drams (about $7,353), while the president's increases from 1,664,000 drams to the same 2,662,000-dram level. Salaries are calculated as a base of 83,200 drams multiplied by a coefficient; the coefficient for both posts is set at 32.
Other increases in the package, as itemised by JAMnews, include the deputy prime minister at 1,289,000 to 2,163,000 drams, the National Assembly speaker at 1,497,600 to 2,496,000 drams, and members of parliament from 832,000 drams to as much as 1,497,600 drams. The president of the Constitutional Court moves from 1,664,000 to 2,412,800 drams, the prosecutor general from 1,248,000 to 1,830,400 drams, and the ombudsman from 998,400 to 1,830,400 drams. Ministers rise from about 998,000 drams toward the 2 million mark.
Governors, deputy ministers, deputy speakers, parliamentary committee chairs, court presidents and parts of the law enforcement and judicial apparatus are also covered.
The government's case
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan framed the measure as an anti-corruption reform rather than a perk. Not implementing it, he said, would mean "condemning the Republic of Armenia to stagnation and continuing to subordinate the logic of the state to the logic of corruption."
He put the argument in concrete terms as well: "How does this public official live? How does he buy a suit and a watch? If we do not solve this problem, it will lead to disasters."
Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan said that even after the increases, public-sector pay would remain well below comparable private-sector compensation, consistent with international practice. Ruling-party MP Eduard Aghajanyan said existing pay levels had made the public administration system unattractive to highly qualified professionals and called the decision somewhat overdue. The item occupied roughly 50 minutes of a government session lasting an hour and a quarter.
The criticism
The rises sit alongside a performance-based bonus system introduced in 2025 and retained under the new scheme. In July 2026 the government approved almost 5 billion drams (about $14 million) in bonuses to officials for the first half of the year.
Opposition figures have seized on the contrast with household conditions. Former MP Garnik Danielyan of the Armenia bloc pointed to an official poverty rate of 21.7% in 2024, with roughly one in four children living in poverty, and to public debt he said had passed $14 billion.
Fiscal context
The 25-billion-dram cost is modest against Armenia's overall budget, and arrives while the sovereign balance sheet is improving: public debt fell to 5.12 trillion drams by 30 June from 5.30 trillion at end-2025, and Moody's moved the outlook on Armenia's Ba3 rating to positive in July. The political test will be whether parliament is willing to pass a near-doubling of elite pay in the run-up to a budget cycle in which wage pressure is already a live issue for the central bank.
