Annual Salary Adjustment 2022 +4.5%

*Eurostat update to the Correction coefficient can be found on p. 34 of their report and it is now official on MyIntracomm (13.12.2022)*

*Update 08.11.2022 to clarify: this 4.5% is in addition to the general intermediate salary update announced in June 2022. For correction coefficient updates and SNEs please check below [1].* Almost everyone, unfortunately with the exception of our local agent (LA) colleagues, will receive a 4.5% salary increase, with retroactive effect from 1 July 2022, to maintain equality with the developments in the Member States. For more info, check the Eurostat Report on the 2022 annual update of remuneration and pensions of EU officials (28.10.2022).

As we already predicted in our November 2021 article about last year’s salary adjustment, the 2022 update includes the 2.5% suspension of the specific indicator from the 2020 adjustment. The following table shows all the details, and we will explain them (you can find a larger table on page 5 of the Eurostat report linked above).

Salary update values for January – July 2022
What Values
GSI 2022 -2.8%
JBLI 2022 +4.9%
🡆 nominal update 2022 +2.0%
Lift 2020 GSI suspension +2.5%
🡆 total update 2022 +4.5%

While this table is a very concise version of what happened, it needs a bit of explanation. For a start, please note that the values are referring to the 6-month period January – July 2022. The previous period (July 2021 – January 2022) was considered in the intermediate update.

The global specific indicator (GSI) 2022 shows a loss of 2.8%. This value refers to the real net income of civil servants in the member states and means that their purchasing power decreased by 2.8%: ‘real’ means that inflation in the respective Member State was considered; ‘net’ means that all relevant deductions (taxes, social contributions etc.) are already deducted.

The Joint Belgium-Luxembourg Inflation Index (JBLI) 2022 increased by 4.9%. This is ‘our’ inflation measure, as defined in the staff regulations. So, while we should lose 2.8% in purchasing power to bring us in line with what has happened in the member states, the actual inflation is much higher and therefore we still need a nominal increase of 2.0% – which is shown by the nominal update 2022 line. The precise calculation looks like the following:

(100% – 2.8%) * (100% + 4.9%) = 102.0%

To this normal nominal update, we must add the 2.5% from the suspended GSI update, to arrive at a total value of 4.5%.[2]

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[1] Thanks very much to everyone who got in touch with us: we add the information you were looking for here:

Seconded national experts (SNEs)

  • The adjustments to remuneration adopted by the Council pursuant to Article 65 of the Staff Regulations shall apply automatically to the subsistence allowances in the month following their adoption.
  • Go to the dedicated SNE Staff Matters page, look for C(2008)6866 and then it is paragraph 17.5.

Correction coefficient update

  • 10.11.2022 not yet published but the adjustment will be visible in the December payslip and backdated to July.
  • Eurostat hoped to publish the figures at the end of October: ‘Eurostat is currently working on the report (target publication date: 31 October) which will lead to the Annual Update with effect from 1 July 2022.’ (p.6)
  • MyIntracomm is still showing the current coefficients.

[2] The more mathematically inclined colleagues will note that using a calculation like the one given in the article above would result in a total value of 4.55% or 4.6% after rounding. However, the base for the full calculation is the full yearly update. This has a value of +7.0% (see the full table on page 5 of the Eurostat report), from which we must deduct the interim update of 2.4% and then the calculation becomes the following:

107% / 102.4% = 104.5%.

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