Although Israel’s Knesset has been gripped by political stalemate and inaction for over a year, lawmakers were able to reach an agreement to increase their salaries this week.
Members of Knesset voted this week to give themselves a pay hike of 2.8 percent, according to a Ynet News report on Monday.
According to the report, a regular lawmaker’s monthly salary will now be increased by 1,232 shekels ($354) to 45,251 shekels ($12,992), while government ministers will see their pay increase to 50,623 shekels ($14,535) per month.
The monthly salaries of the president and prime minister will also rise to 64,616 shekels ($18,637) and 56,295 shekels ($16,163) respectively.
All wage increases are scheduled to take effect this month.
Ynet News also pointed out that Israel’s National Insurance Institute (NII) reported approximately 2 million Israelis living below the poverty line, including 800,000 children.
The Knesset went on hiatus in December 2018 due to the April 2019 elections and was active for a total of only two-and-a-half months in 2019. The inability to form a coalition after both the April and September national elections have led to a third vote scheduled for March 2, 2020. Israel’s 23rd Knesset is expected to be inaugurated two weeks later on March 16.
Israelis have been without a functioning government for almost a year now. If a coalition is successfully formed after the upcoming elections, the Knesset will be resuming work after a year and a half of inactivity – during which lawmakers took their salaries.
Despite the total lack of confidence most Israelis have in their politicians, lawmakers seem to have no trouble displaying their greed and arrogance by awarding themselves a pay hike, bringing their monthly salaries up to nearly nine times the nation’s minimum wage.
