EU institution salaries are public, rule-based and, once you know how to read the grid, entirely predictable. What confuses candidates is not secrecy but structure: the same monthly figure can mean very different take-home pay depending on grade, step, duty station, family situation and contract type. This guide walks through the 2026 figures the way an offer letter actually builds them up: basic salary first, then allowances, then deductions, then the correction coefficient.
How the EU pay system works
Every official, temporary agent and contract agent is paid from a single salary grid laid down in the Staff Regulations. Your position on the grid is a grade, which reflects the level of the job, and a step, which reflects seniority within the grade. Steps advance automatically every two years; grades advance by promotion or by winning a higher-graded post. The whole grid is adjusted once a year under Article 65 of the Staff Regulations, based on Eurostat data on purchasing power and the cost of living, with the updated figures published in the Official Journal in December. The figures below are the basic monthly amounts we display across this site; treat them as the pre-adjustment baseline for 2026.
Officials and temporary agents: AD and AST grades
Administrator grades run from AD5 to AD16. AD5 is the graduate entry point, with a basic salary of roughly EUR 4,917 to 5,565 per month across its steps. AD7, the usual entry grade for specialist competitions with a few years of experience, runs from about EUR 6,137 to 6,767. From there the grid climbs steadily to director and director-general level. Assistant grades run from AST1, at roughly EUR 2,823 to 3,196, through AST3 at about EUR 3,523 to 3,883, up to AST11; the separate AST/SC category for secretarial and clerical roles sits slightly below the equivalent AST grades. Temporary agents at agencies are paid on the same grid as officials at the same grade.
Contract agents: Function Groups I to IV
Contract agents are graded differently, into four Function Groups. FG I covers manual and support tasks, from roughly EUR 1,907 to 2,869 basic per month. FG II, clerical and secretarial work, spans about EUR 2,398 to 4,286. FG III, administrative and technical execution, runs from around EUR 2,954 to 5,932. FG IV, the graduate-level group covering policy, legal, scientific and IT work, spans approximately EUR 3,637 at entry to 8,225 at the top of the group. The wide ranges reflect internal grades and steps within each group: a new FG IV recruit typically starts near the bottom of the band, not the middle.
What gets added: the allowances
Allowances are where EU packages pull ahead of most national civil services. The expatriation allowance adds 16 per cent of basic salary for staff working outside their home country, which describes most people in Brussels and Luxembourg. The household allowance adds a fixed sum plus a small percentage of basic salary for staff who are married or have dependants. Each dependent child attracts a further fixed monthly allowance, and there are education allowances that in practice cover much of the cost of international schooling. For a typical expatriate recruit with a family, allowances add several hundred to well over a thousand euros to the monthly figure.
What comes off: EU tax, levy and contributions
EU staff do not pay national income tax on their salary. Instead they pay a Community tax withheld at source, on a progressive scale that runs from 8 per cent up to 45 per cent on the highest slices of income, plus a solidarity levy of 6 per cent (7 per cent for the most senior grades). Pension contributions take roughly another tenth of basic salary, and sickness insurance around 2 per cent. The practical effect for an AD5 or FG IV recruit is that net pay lands meaningfully below the gross figures above, though still well clear of comparable national civil service pay once allowances are counted. Our salary calculator produces a personalised gross-to-net estimate for any grade, step and family situation.
Correction coefficients: same grade, different pay
The grid figures are calibrated to Brussels and Luxembourg, which sit at a coefficient of 100. Staff posted elsewhere have pay multiplied by a correction coefficient reflecting local costs: duty stations in cheaper countries carry coefficients below 100, and expensive ones above. An FG IV contract agent at an agency in Warsaw or Vilnius therefore takes home a different amount from a colleague at the same grade in The Hague or Frankfurt, by design. If you are choosing between agencies, check the coefficient before comparing offers; our correction coefficients guide lists the current values by duty station.
AD5 or FG IV: which pays better?
At entry, the honest answer is that the difference is smaller than most candidates expect: an FG IV contract agent at the upper steps can out-earn an early-step AD5. The divergence comes later. AD grades carry automatic step progression, realistic promotion prospects and a permanent appointment, so the AD path compounds over a career. FG IV tops out within its band, and contract agent posts, especially at agencies, are fixed-term with renewal limits. FG IV is an excellent way in, and for many specialists a satisfying career in itself, but if you qualify for both routes, the AD competition is worth the longer odds.
Common questions
Do EU officials pay any national tax? Not on their EU salary, which is subject only to the Community tax and levy above; other income, such as rental income at home, remains nationally taxable. Can a contract agent become an official? Yes, but only by passing an EPSO competition; years served as a contract agent count as experience and internal CAST-to-competition transitions are common. Is the salary negotiable? No. Grading on entry follows your qualifications and years of experience under fixed rules, which cuts both ways: no negotiation, but also no pay gap for equal work.
To see what these grades pay in practice, browse live vacancies by grade, from AD5 posts across the institutions to FG IV openings at the agencies, and use the salary calculator to turn any of the figures above into a net monthly estimate for your own situation.