Malta's mayors are the people on the front-line when it comes to politics, dealing with the day-to-day gripes of their localities - however trivial or serious they may be - and yet the remuneration they receive remains lower than Malta's average salary.

As Malta has debated the question of whether Members of Parliament are paid enough, The Malta Independent on Sunday extended this question to whether mayors are adequately remunerated for their work.

As per the Local Councils Act, a mayor's honorarium is pegged to the honorarium that MPs receive: mayors of the smallest local councils - made up of five members - receive 45% of the honorarium payable to an MP, mayors of councils with either seven or nine members receive 65% of an MP's honorarium, and mayors of councils with more than nine members receive 85% of an MP's honorarium.

This works out to around €925 per month for mayors of the smallest localities, €1,335 per month for mayors of the mid-range localities, and €1,745 per month for the mayors of the country's largest localities.

Malta's average monthly salary at the end of 2023, according to the National Statistics Office, stood at €1,837 per month.

The Malta Independent on Sunday spoke with five mayors - two from the Labour Party, two from the Nationalist Party, and one independent - from various localities to understand whether the current remuneration is a fair reflection for the work done.

They all spoke of the long hours and big responsibilities that they faced, and most remarked that the honorarium does not reflect the workload this.

"It doesn't reflect the workload, responsibility, and the decisions that you have to take for the benefit of the locality," independent Zebbug mayor Steve Zammit Lupi told The Malta Independent on Sunday.

"How can you give the hours required when most of us have our own jobs and families?  It's not easy.  I think everyone at some point needs to make a decision on how much time they can actually contribute," he said.

He said that being self-employed, he managed to shift things around so that he can work on the council full-time during the week. "I'm doing it because I feel that it is my duty to do so.  But I am self-employed. Mayors who are employed won't have the same flexibility as me - it's a reality," he said.

Kaylon Zammit meanwhile, who was elected as PL mayor of the small town of Pembroke for the first time last June, gave a similar interpretation: "You won't be doing it for the money, that's for sure. The honorarium does not redeem for what you have to give to the locality," he said, adding that often mayors have to juggle their full time occupation, and their council role

He said that the role is a 24/7 ordeal, as residents who might recognise him would, rightly so, approach him with any issue they have. "I do not think Mayors are compensated enough for the work they actually do," he said.

St Paul's Bay mayor and veteran politician Censu Galea echoed the sentiment that the work is practically non-stop.

"If you look at it from a perspective of whether it is an adequate pay for the work which is done, I don't think it is. But on the other hand, I'm definitely not going to be the one to campaign for a massive increase in the honoraria," Galea, who is the mayor of Malta's most populous locality, said.

Handling all the cases that come up in a big locality such as his is impossible if one isn't full-time in practice - and that's full-time beyond a 40-hour work week, Galea said. "To handle the claims, the residents, meetings with authorities and so on; 40 hours is not enough."

Birzebbuga mayor Scott Camilleri, who is in his second term leading his locality, meanwhile told The Malta Independent on Sunday: "If you do your work seriously, you have to dedicate a massive amount of time to keep up with meetings with entities, meetings with people, and the administrative work."

"The honorarium has to reflect the amount of work that you have. If you want to work full-time you have to make sacrifices both from your career and financially, which I don't think is just," he said.

Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat was more candid about the matter: "In all honesty, I am not even concerned about salaries.  What I care about is delivering.  I'm not saying that to impress anyone - what I wish is that I can work harder, that they will allow us to work, that there is more autonomy, and that the government doesn't create problems for us because the problems I have in my locality are all inflicted by the government," he told this newspaper.

He referred to problems such as over-tourism, waste management, and short-let apartments and said: "With the amount I'm delivering I deserve nothing to tell you the truth, because I'm just fire-fighting. I prefer, more than a salary, autonomy, responsibility and that we are allowed to lead the locality," he said.

This, Muscat says, is not for a lack of hours: he said that if one measures the input then in fact he's doing double the work because it is day and night, 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

"I'm not joking... but it's reporting, reporting, reporting and getting nowhere," he said.  As an example, he said that he goes out into the locality three times a day and reports improper waste disposal to the ERA and MTA - yet nothing is done.

"So I don't know how to measure it: with my input I deserve double, with my results I deserve half. I'd rather go ask for more money for the locality than for the mayor," he said. "In truth, we are working overtime to try and wake up a sleeping government," he added.

Both Camilleri and Zammit Lupi also pointed towards the honoraria received by councillors - which is around €200 per month - and said that this too should be discussed, as councillors all make sacrifices as well to work for the locality.

To go full-time, or not to go full-time?

The debate on full-time politicians has long been ongoing, and while the mayors agreed that the current remuneration system doesn't reflect the work put in, not all of them agreed on the mayorship being made a full-time position.

Zammit Lupi said that putting mayors on a full-time pay would increase the standards and level of commitment, ultimately benefitting the locality. It would also attract more talent to local councils

"The way it is I think we are missing out on a lot of potential. If we want to increase the quality and attract the best talent to the local council then mayors should be full timers. We cannot expect people with professions or well-paid jobs to give them up and the income for their families to be a volunteer as a mayor in a local council," he said. 

"Everyone wants top performing local councils but the conditions aren't there, and it reflects in the candidates. You have a lot of people who are reluctant to get involved in local politics because it simply doesn't pay," he pointed out.

Camilleri's thinking was along a very similar line: "We want to attract more talent to the localities, but because of the financial burdens they are reluctant to enter into this field. I strongly believe that there are people with years of experience but they're reluctant to participate. So there is where we can improve," he said.

Camilleri went a step further and remarked that there are localities which - in terms of population - are even comparable to an MP's constituency. "If you take it on par, there should be the same level of conditions or package so we can attract the necessary talent - but obviously there needs to be a long discussion on this process," he said.

Zammit also said that the topic merits discussion. "Ultimately, if you have Mayors who can dedicate more time for the locality, then residents will benefit more from this," the Pembroke mayor said.

Galea meanwhile said that local councils will benefit from full-time posts being introduced, but said that one must also take into consideration what would happen when a mayor is not re-elected.

"I am a pensioner so this isn't directed at me, but look at younger people; they want to prepare for the rest of their lives, and like any elected post this isn't a forever job; you've got a 5 year term and you don't know what's going to happen after," he said. If one loses their place, they have to start their professional life from scratch, Galea pointed out.

"The difficulty of full-time is tied to when you finish from your post, that's the real problem. You don't have a guarantee forever here," he said.

Muscat on the other hand said that he wouldn't do the job if it were a full-time one because he has his own company to run, and went a step further in saying that he believes that if the council doesn't face the massive problems that it does on a day-to-day basis, a full-time mayor is not necessary.

A good executive secretary with an assistant, he said, would be enough.

"If they want to change the role of the mayor into being a policeman and a watchman, then yes it needs to be a full-time post, but what we need is functionality," he said.

Doing it for the locality

The broad common theme between them however was that all of them knew what they were getting themselves into, and none of them were doing the job for the money.

"It is a rewarding job, I'm enjoying it - I'm not in it for the pay; I knew what it was beforehand, but the commitment is big and the responsibility is big," Zammit Lupi said.

Camilleri concurred: "I believe that you don't come into the council for the honorarium... to be compensated.  You're in the council because you love your locality, and because you want to make a difference and do good things for the locality," he said.

Likewise, Zammit said that "one does this job because they have the locality at heart."

Galea meanwhile jokingly remarked that he had worked backwards from the well-trodden path of serving in the local council and then going on into bigger roles on a national level.  "I'm here because I want this place to change from the state it is in," he said.

As for Muscat, he said he'd much rather see more money funnelled into the locality than into improving his pay cheque.