Incredible! At RTV Slovenia, they have higher salaries even than the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Prime Minister!

By: Peter Jančič (Spletni časopis)

The highest salaries at RTVS are much higher than the salaries received by the Chief of the Supreme Court Miodrag Đorđević with gross 6,684 euros, Prime Minister Robert Golob with 6,547, President of the Republic Nataša Pirc Musar with 6,493, President of the Constitutional Court Matej Accetto with 6,337, and Speaker of the National Assembly Urška Klakočar Zupančič with 6,279 euros. This was shown by salary data from RTV Slovenia for more than two thousand employees.

The data with the “average gross salaries of all employees at RTV Slovenia, namely for the period from October to December 2023” was sent to me last week in a closed format (as images), which makes processing and displaying the data difficult. On top of that, they sent averages for several months and not the most recently paid salaries, which is what other institutions from which I get data send.

But with the help of readers and computer programmes that capture data from images and transfer them to excel format, it has already been shown that the data on the hundred highest salaries sent to me in January was inaccurate. At the time, they claimed that the highest salaries at RTVS were given to the editor of the television programme for the Italian national community, Aljoša Curavić, with 5,541 gross, the new head of the RTVS administration, Zvezdan Martić, with 5,384 euros, and Katarina Jakopič, with 5,333 euros. Data on the salaries of correspondents around the world, which vary considerably, were missing, it seems. Probably also due to allowances for working abroad. The sorted number of salaries of all employees, as they have now been sent, shows that they received more than 5,000 euros (errors are also possible due to data conversions):

When it comes to more famous journalists and presenters, Ksenja Horvat received 4,929 euros, Jožef Možina 4,914, Rosvita Pesek 4,872, Ilinka Todorovski 4,859, Marta Razboršek 4,817, Erika Žnidaršič 4,816 euros, Igor Bergant 4,781, Manica Ambrožič 4,568, Tanja Starič 4,205, Igor Pirkovič 4. 191 , Saša Krajnc 4,119…

Over the weekend, many readers converted the RTVS data and sent me information about the education of journalists in the form of tables, which were also sent to me by RTVS in a locked form, which complicates processing. I simply published the RTVS document in its entirety on Saturday. I thank all readers for their efforts in converting and processing the data. When I got the data late on Friday afternoon and prepared the story for Saturday, it would have been difficult for me to do all this because I was on my way to go skiing. How I was afraid a day later on Piskr because of the wind, I report here.

The data, also processed with the help of readers, show that out of 611 journalists (in total, more than two thousand workers are employed at RTVS), 88 only have a high school education. There is not a single one who only has a primary school education or even lower. A total of 138, or slightly less than a quarter of all journalists, have insufficient education. Formally, journalists should have at least the seventh level of education. So, university. Among the many reactions to Saturday’s article, with which readers helped me, there were also notes that a higher education (even a PhD) is not a guarantee of good journalistic work. They also cited concrete examples. I agree with that. But it is equally true that exceptional education is not yet a guarantee for exceptional doctors, lawyers, and others, but in large medical institutions and in courts they still insist on the importance of formal education.

After processing the data, one of the readers graphically showed how a little less than a quarter of all journalists employed at RTVS have insufficient education.

Among those who only have a high school education, there are also some who are unusually high in terms of salaries and (editorial) responsibilities. RTVS, when I was checking how much Marcel Štefančič’s show Marcel will cost, informed me that Vesna Pfeifer, Urška Žnidaršič, Greta Godnič, and Jerca Oblak are regular employees of RTV Slovenia, and their participation in the preparation of the new Marcel show is only one of many other work commitments and that their monthly incomes do not reflect the cost of the Marcel show. They did not answer about the salary amount.

A review of the average salaries for the last few months now shows that Vesna Pfeifer, who only has a high school education and does editorial work, has a gross salary of 3,374 euros. That this is relatively large is shown by the data, because the editor-in-chief of the second (and the third programme) Rajko Gerič, who has education and management experience from several media outlets, and who was briefly put on hold by the administration of Zvezdan Martić before the new year, received 3,521 gross. Pfeifer was one of the activists of the rebellion at RTVS against the previous government. Political activism occasionally replaces formal education. Director Urška Žnidaršič gets even more than Gerič with 3,785 euros, Greta Godnič 3,099 euros and Jerca Oblak 2,132 euros monthly salary.

The annual salary cost for Marcela and other shows on RTVS, made by Vesna Pfeiffer, Urška Žnidaršič, Greta Godnič, and Jerca Oblak, is 148,680 euros. However, these jobs cost even more because the employer has to pay additional taxes and contributions (gross gross). Since Marcel Štefančič is not at work at RTVS, this Mladina journalist works extra for TVS, he is not on the salary and education lists of RTVS journalists. The annual fee of 19,200 euros, which is an additional clear cost, will certainly come in handy to him as an independent entrepreneur.

I am not publishing more data (for example, about everyone over four thousand euros gross) because when converting larger databases, mistakes are possible with names and surnames and otherwise. If RTVS does not send the data in an open format, I will publish the entire list that was sent to me in a closed format. And my conversion along with it.

The statistics on the distribution of salaries are as follows:

Source: www.spletnicasopis.eu