Ministers struggling financially, claims MK behind controversial salary bill
While asserting that his legislation is not intended to raise public officials’ wages, Likud’s Avihai Boaron insists some are having trouble making ends meet
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet are facing financial difficulty due to the rise in the cost of living and are struggling to support their families on their current salaries, the author of a controversial bill to overhaul government pay scales claimed last week.
Speaking with the Knesset Channel on Thursday, Likud MK Avihai Boaron claimed that one government minister told him he was “having trouble making ends meet, because ‘I have a family with many children,'” while asserting he had “much better offers outside” government.
According to Boaron, the minister indicated that he was only bringing home NIS 23,000 ($6,423) a month after taxes.
MKs currently earn gross monthly salaries of NIS 47,582 ($13,980) while ministers in the government make NIS 58,274 ($15,568) per month. They pay a nearly 50 percent tax rate on part of their income due to their high income brackets.
The average monthly salary in Israel is around NIS 12,379 ($3,289).
In a WhatsApp exchange with a Channel 12 reporter, Boaron shared his own pay slip, showing that his take-home salary came to NIS 21,775 ($6,081) — following the deduction of some NIS 23,000 in taxes, and well as some NIS 4,500 in pension and other savings.
Boaron’s statement echoed National Missions and Settlements Minister Orit Strock, who in a text chat leaked in January 2024 also claimed there were government ministers who are struggling financially.
“No ministers get fat salaries. I know ministers who can’t make ends meet each month, even though they work very hard, night and day — and there are even those whose parents are supporting them financially,” Strock wrote at the time.
Boaron’s complaints regarding salaries appeared at odds with recent claims that his salaries bill is not actually meant to increase ministers and lawmakers’ compensation.
Last Sunday, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation backed Boaron’s bill, which aims to regulate and equalize salaries between senior officials in all three branches of government.
If passed, the bill would establish a three-member public committee that would determine the salary of the president, from which all other officials’ salaries would be derived, in a manner intended “to create equality between the governmental authorities.”
The president, the prime minister and the president of the Supreme Court would all earn equivalent salaries, while the opposition leader would receive 94 percent of their salary and government ministers and MKs would bring in 88% and 76%, respectively.
Currently, Supreme Court Chief Justice Isaac Amit earns a gross monthly salary of over NIS 120,000 (approximately $33,113), President Isaac Herzog NIS 68,000 ($18,764) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu NIS 59,000 ($16,280).
While Boaron said that the bill would actually lead to salary cuts for the highest earners, especially judges, critics of the legislation, some of them within the coalition, contend it is actually intended to raise ministers’ and lawmakers’ salaries.
The bill drew criticism from Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri, who tweeted ahead of the vote that his party would “oppose any initiative to raise the salaries of MKs and ministers” in the middle of a war, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who indicated that his support for the legislation was conditioned on there being “no salary increases.”
A spokesman for Justice Minister Yariv Levin told The Times of Israel that the committee approved the bill only on condition that it “not raise anyone’s salary” but “will result in a salary cut for Supreme Court justices.”
Asked about his bill by Channel 12, Boaron said that, despite his complaints, “there is no dispute that in the situation we are in right now, the salaries of elected officials should not be increased. We earn a respectable enough salary and that is perfectly fine. Anyone who wants to earn more in the private sector can choose to go into the private sector.”
Israel is ranked fourth place in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) list of developed countries with the highest comparable prices, which the organization recently said were tied to a combination of geographical factors, trade barriers, and stringent product market regulation.
On January 1, Israelis were also hit with a series of tax increases, price hikes and utility cost rises affecting the prices of most transactions including groceries, cars and the cost of new apartments.
Israelis saw their take-home pay shrink further, with the sums deducted from paychecks toward the National Insurance Institute rising by an additional NIS 1,000 to NIS 2,000 a year for the average household.
The 2025 state budget, which was passed in March, included billions of shekels in coalition funds but failed to curb spending by multiple government ministries deemed superfluous by treasury officials.
Sharon Wrobel contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.