What Salaries Could Ukrainian Ministers Expect? An HR Specialist Analyzed Government Members' Resumes Without Knowing Their Names

The information submitted for analysis was anonymized to avoid subjectivity.

The topic of ministers' salaries has become a hot and widely debated issue in Ukrainian society. Even Volodymyr Zelensky weighed in, demanding that Oleksiy Honcharuk develop a new concept for paying top officials. The government, formed as a team of technocrats, received a generous New Year's gift in the form of allowances and bonuses, as a result of which in December the incomes of many ministry heads exceeded the 100,000 hryvnia mark.

Ministers complain that they cannot live on their base salary of 36,000 hryvnias alone, and justify their bonuses by refusing to take part in corruption schemes. And one can understand them.

Ordinary Ukrainians, many of whom earn roughly as much in a year as Ukrainian ministers earn in a month, did not appreciate this step and subjected the Cabinet to a barrage of criticism. And one can understand them too.

The TK Media editorial team decided to find out how well the salaries of current ministers, based on their qualifications, match the labor market and how much they could earn in the commercial sector. We asked Vladyslav Hrezev — founder and CEO of the recruitment platform Lobby X — to analyze the resumes of the technocrat ministers and answer several questions. 

As part of the experiment, the information submitted for analysis was anonymized, without surnames or distinctive characteristics, and contained only key data — education and work experience, as well as age, foreign language proficiency and city of residence (for all of them, Kyiv). This approach may not have fully revealed the ministers' professional potential, but it made it possible to achieve the most objective analysis possible, without linking it to specific individuals. 

Unfortunately, some Cabinet members previously held very public positions, which made it impossible to compile a resume whose content would not reveal their identities, so they did not make it into the analyzed list.

Mykhailo Fedorov

Deputy Prime Minister — Minister of Digital Transformation

In December his salary amounted to 84,887 hryvnias, while the average salary in 2019 was 55,664 hryvnias.

Age: 29 years

City of residence: Kyiv

Education: 2009 – 2014 -  higher education, Faculty of Sociology and Management, Zaporizhzhia National University

Work experience:

-  2015 — 2019 — private entrepreneur, owner of a digital agency; -  September 2018 — December 2018 – as part of consulting activity, served as operations director of a project — an online school for entrepreneurs;

- public activist: while studying at university — student self-government leader; graduated from the Higher School of Politics and the NATO Representation in Ukraine educational school; co-organizer of charity projects;

Foreign language proficiency: English — basic level.

HR specialist's comment:

1. What position level could such a candidate theoretically aim for?

- Manager, top manager.

2. How competitive could he be in the field of his main activity?

- Average competitiveness, due to his level of English.

3. What average salary could such a candidate expect in the commercial sector?

- 25,000 hryvnias.

Oleksiy Orzhel

Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection

His December salary was 162,003 hryvnias, while the minister's average salary in 2019 was 61,299 hryvnias.

Age: 36 years

City of residence: Kyiv

Education: higher education, Institute of Energy Saving and Energy Management of the National Technical University “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, specialty — “Energy Management”.

Work experience:

2006 – 2014  – National energy regulator — worked in various positions;

From 2014  – work in the private sector;

From 2014  — expert work on energy issues;

From 2014  — head of the Ukrainian Renewable Energy Association.

HR specialist's comment:

1. What position level could such a candidate theoretically aim for?

- An expert or leadership position in the state or civil sector, possibly in media. All within the energy field.

2. How competitive could he be in the field of his main activity?

- There is too little information about the candidate. Average competitiveness. 

3. What average salary could such a candidate expect in the commercial sector?

- From 25,000 hryvnias.

Oksana Koliada

Minister for Veterans Affairs, Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons

Average salary last year was 46,688 hryvnias. In December her payments amounted to 158,772 hryvnias.

Age: 39 years

City of residence: Kyiv

Education: 2002 — graduated from Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, specialty “Jurisprudence”; 

2007 — received a master's degree in law from Lviv State University of Internal Affairs;

2013 — certificate from the international training project “Women in the Police”;

2016  — certificate of a course in strategic communications.

Work experience:

2003—2015 — service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine;

2015—2017 — service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine — head of the communications and press department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine;

2016—2017 — author of specialized courses for journalists working in the ATO zone;

Head of a charitable foundation.

Foreign language proficiency: English, French — fluent.  

HR specialist's comment:

1. What position level could such a candidate theoretically aim for?

- Work in state security or law enforcement communications.

2. How competitive could she be in the field of her main activity?

- Non-competitive. 

3. What average salary could such a candidate expect in the commercial sector?

- From 20,000 hryvnias.

Anna Novosad

Minister of Education and Science

In December of last year she received 138,412 hryvnias. The average salary for 2019 was 63,446 hryvnias.

Age: 29 years

City of residence: Kyiv

Education: 2011 — National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, academic degree — bachelor, field — political science;

2013 — Maastricht University in the Netherlands, master of European studies.

Work experience:

2014-2019 — worked at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine; until December 2017 headed the department of international cooperation and European integration of the MES;

- from December 2017 to August 2019 — director general of the MES directorate;

Foreign language proficiency: English and German — fluent.

HR specialist's comment:

1. What position level could such a candidate theoretically aim for?

- Top manager in the state or civil sector, in education.

2. How competitive could she be in the field of her main activity?

- Very competitive. 

3. What average salary could such a candidate expect in the commercial sector?

- From 50,000 hryvnias.

Zoryana Skaletska

Minister of Health

Average salary for last year was 41,940 hryvnias. In December the minister was credited with 94,988 hryvnias.

Age: 39 years

City of residence: Kyiv

Education:

2002 — specialist in law — Faculty of Legal Sciences, “NaUKMA”;

2002—2007 — PhD student at the Faculty of Law and Administration of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. Defended a dissertation for the academic degree of Doctor of Law;

2011—2012 — completed a one-year advanced certificate program for Central and Eastern European countries, “Research Ethics,” in the USA.

Work experience:

2001—2006 — worked as a leading specialist in the legal analysis of regulatory acts department of the Main Directorate of Regulatory Policy of the State Committee of Ukraine for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship;

since 2006 — work at the National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”. Since 2014 – associate professor; since 2015 – deputy dean of the Faculty of Legal Sciences.

Expert in medical law, author of scientific publications.

Foreign language proficiency: English and Polish — fluent.

HR specialist's comment:

1. What position level could such a candidate theoretically aim for?

- Expert, research, teaching work. In education — program management, possibly within a legal specialty. Not a managerial position.

2. How competitive could she be in the field of her main activity?

- Competitive.

3. What average salary could such a candidate expect in the commercial sector?

- From 50,000 hryvnias.

Yulia Sokolovska

Minister of Social Policy

Average salary in 2019 — 65,317 hryvnias. In December the minister's payments amounted to 216,783 hryvnias.

Age: 34 years

City of residence: Kyiv

Education: 

2007 -  Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University, with honors;

2016  — National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, specialty “Public Administration”;

2015-2016  —  studied in educational programs of the IMF, UNICEF and the World Bank.

Work experience:

2007 — 2009 -  in the private sector;

since 2009 -  worked in various positions in the Department of Economy and Investment of the Kyiv City State Administration;

2014-2015 -  head of the document management department of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine;

2015-2016 — director of the department of social sphere budget expenditures at the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine;

2016-2017  — head of the department for strategic planning and coordination of state policy at the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Foreign language proficiency: English — fluent.

HR specialist's comment:

1. What position level could such a candidate theoretically aim for?

- Managerial position in the state or civil sector.

2. How competitive could she be in the field of her main activity?

- Competitive.

3. What average salary could such a candidate expect in the commercial sector?

- From 35,000 hryvnias.

Denys Maliuska

Minister of Justice

In December of last year he received 226,361 hryvnias. His average salary in 2019 was 75,734 hryvnias.

Age: 38 years

City of residence: Kyiv

Education: 

2004 – Taras Shevchenko Kyiv University, jurisprudence; 

2016 – University of London, master of laws.

Work experience:

2004-2010 — lawyer on business regulation, dispute resolution and bankruptcy at the law association 

“Law Firm Business Law”;

2010-2019 — consultant and specialist in private sector development at the World Bank Group, providing technical support to the governments of Ukraine, Belarus and Central Asian countries.

Foreign language proficiency: English — fluent.

HR specialist's comment:

1. What position level could such a candidate theoretically aim for?

- Manager or top manager level position in the private, state or civil sector.

2. How competitive could he be in the field of his main activity?

- Highly competitive. 

3. What average salary could such a candidate expect in the commercial sector?

- From 75,000 hryvnias.

Anatolii Kolesnikov, TK Media