Increase through cuts: local authorities must find funds for culture through optimization — Lyubarov

This week the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine announced an increase in the official salaries of industry employees under a new Cabinet resolution from 1 January 2027, however funding for this must be sought from local budgets through optimization of networks and staffing, which the head of the Department for Culture of the Mykolaiv City Council Yurii Liubarov reported on his Facebook page.

According to the official, the government document provides for two levels of pay increases: 70% — for employees of state and municipal cultural institutions whose salaries are calculated according to a single tariff grid, as well as for staff of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the Ukrainian Book Institute; and 40% — for employees whose base salaries already have upward coefficients applied of up to 1.3 inclusive.

In the text of the resolution itself, published on the government website, local authorities are recommended to streamline the network of cultural institutions, increase the effectiveness of their activities and review staff numbers in order to “free up funds as a result of such measures” and direct them to salary increases, which Liubarov pointed out, citing the document and his own analysis of its provisions.

“In plain terms the government tells local authorities: review the network of cultural institutions, the number of employees, find where you can cut or merge, and direct the saved funds to increasing salaries for cultural workers. ‘Optimization of the network of cultural institutions’ can mean reorganization, merging institutions, changing structures, reducing administrative costs, and in some cases closing inefficient establishments. ‘Increasing the efficiency of their activities’ means that institutions must work more effectively: more services and events, better use of premises, equipment and budget funds,” Yurii Liubarov said.

The official also explained that by “rational use of staff numbers” in the government wording is meant an audit of the staffing table to determine whether there are redundant positions or insufficient workloads for certain employees.

“‘Funds that can be freed up’ — saved after reorganization, staff reductions, merging institutions or reducing other expenses,” explained the head of the Department for Culture of the Mykolaiv City Council Yurii Liubarov.

He emphasized that these steps are of a recommendatory nature: the state declares the increase of salaries while shifting the search for additional resources to local self-government bodies through internal savings within the sector.

“The important word is ‘recommend’. The government is effectively asking local budgets to find money for pay rises inside the culture sector itself, through savings and optimization. In other words, the political content of the resolution is this: the state raises official salaries, but the local authorities must find the funds for this, including by reviewing the network of institutions and staff numbers,” Yurii Liubarov said.

Context for the situation in Mykolaiv: the director of the Mykolaiv Zoo, Volodymyr Topchyi, earlier reported that the Mykolaiv budget has no funds to pay salaries to employees of cultural institutions from 1 September, and urged that funding issues be addressed now.

Earlier we wrote:

• Cultural workers’ salaries will be increased by up to 70%: who will be affected by the new rules from 2027
• “From 1 September there is no money for salaries”: Topchyi warned about the situation in cultural institutions
• Mykolaiv lacks over UAH 50 million for salaries in culture and education: staff and library branches are under threat
• There is money, but not for everyone: Mykolaiv increased the budget by hundreds of millions of hryvnias while culture remained on the brink of survival
• Mykolaiv risks delays in salary payments to workers of culture and education