MKs slash planned pay cut for MKs

A Knesset committee voted Thursday to reduce a planned 10 percent pay cut for MKs and other senior government officials to only 1%.

The reduced cut, part of austerity measures proposed by the Finance Ministry, applies to the salaries of the prime minister, the president, government ministers and Knesset members.

According to a Maariv report, the Labor and Social Welfare Committee members objected to the original 10% cut, because it did not also apply to the salaries of state judges and religious judges appointed by the Rabbinate.

Committee chairman MK Haim Katz (Likud) said that the changes to the pay cuts also include a slight reduction in the planned 1% across-the-board pay cut for public-sector workers, and that the drop for Knesset members will be renegotiated so that MKs and judges receive the same percentage of reduced wages.

The rate of cuts for MKs “will be finalized only after discussion and an agreement to reduce judges’ wages by the same rate. The decision on this issue should be made by the Finance Committee,” Katz told Maariv.

In addition to many benefits, including a clothing allowance, parliamentarians currently receive an average salary of approximately NIS 38,000 ($10,500) per month.

Asher Zeiger contributed to this report.