MKs’ salaries rise, as they choose not to extend 3-year freeze

By Ariela Karmel

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28 January 2026, 7:18 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

A plenum session at the Knesset, January 14, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Salaries of Knesset lawmakers are increasing by thousands of shekels per month for the first time since 2023, as the country contends with a rising average cost of living.

In 2024 and 2025, Knesset members froze their salaries — generally linked to the average wage and inflation — in a show of solidarity amid the country’s difficult economic conditions following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and the subsequent war in Gaza.

This year, the freeze was not extended, so salaries increased automatically. The new year has seen a massive rise in costs for the average citizen, with many households struggling to make ends meet.

Rank-and-file MKs will see their monthly pay rise from NIS 44,146 ($14,250) to NIS 48,739 ($15,733), while deputy speakers and Knesset committee chairs will see their paychecks grow from NIS 46,567 ($15,031) to NIS 51,359 ($16,578).

The leader of the opposition, currently Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid, will receive NIS 54,957 ($17,740) up from NIS 49,850 ($16,091), and the Knesset speaker, Likud’s Amir Ohana, will earn NIS 61,491 ($19,849) rather than his current NIS 55,812 ($18,016).

The decision provoked criticism from former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is not in the Knesset, and charged the body with lining its members’ pockets while doing nothing to help ordinary Israelis’ economic plight. Bennett is running for prime minister in the upcoming elections.

“Today, Knesset members raised their own salaries by NIS 4,563 a month to keep up with rising prices. This takes effect immediately. So why are they abandoning the rest of Israel’s citizens? Why has this government done nothing to help Israelis cope with this insane rise in prices? You had three and a half years — you did nothing. Soon we will fix it,” Bennett says in a statement. The actual figure is NIS 4,593.

Lawmakers’ salaries last rose three years ago in 2023 from NIS 45,274 to NIS 47,583, a 5.1% increase after three years of a previous freeze sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.