The authorities of the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) will receive nearly PLN 50 million from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education to raise minimum wages.

The additional money is the reaction to the appeal of scientists working in institutes who demanded equating the level of their earnings with salaries of scholars of public universities, who will receive significant pay-rises thanks to the increase of the minimum wage.

– Increasing the subsidy for maintaining the research potential will enable to rise salaries in institutes, and it is a kind of gentlemen’s agreement between the Ministry of Science and the leadership of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Ministry of Science does not currently have the right to set a minimum level of remuneration, as it happens in the case of university employees – said Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin, Minister of Science and Higher Education.