This means that her position as the minister’s private secretary was valued just under €45,000 in the year of 2021 (including all allowances and salary upgrades). This puts a lot of things into perspective.

Because if our ministers have the funds to pay their secretaries a wage close to their own, why is it that our teachers, nurses and even doctors need to work their fingers to the bone for a decent salary?

This is not to say that private secretaries don’t deserve a decent wage, their job is essential to the inner workings of the government. However, when you compare the nature of the work, the value added to society and the years of qualifications (because yes, those do matter) needed for professions that are notoriously underpaid, it does not make sense.

And it’s not just secretaries’ salaries.

Somehow the government has scraped up the funds for generous salary bumps, exorbitant direct orders, a 10-minute promo clip featuring a politician and costing way over €500,000 and millions for film festivals criticised for having little value.

While at the same time, it struggles to pay nurses and teachers fairly, attributes our lack of efficient public transport to a drying resource pool and cannot afford to build a second hospital without the intervention of shady third parties. All the while most of our doctors grapple with an inhumane workload to see financial results.

For context, MCAST teachers have spent over a year engaged in industrial action just so they can fight for a wage that can stand against the current cost of living. The starting salary for a Senior Lecturer 2 (the highest level) at MCAST is €36,881, according to a 2022 job post. The Malta Union of Teachers and the Education Ministry have been negotiating a new collective agreement for almost three years.

It has come to the point where students are protesting for their teachers because they cannot bear the residual effects on their education any longer. These are the people who are responsible for educating voters and even future leaders of our country. It shouldn’t take this much effort for their teachers to get adequately paid.

Meanwhile, for scale seven primary and secondary school teachers, it takes them at least 16 years to earn a salary of over €40,000 including allowances – and this salary bump just came into effect this year.

At best, this is an issue with the state’s priorities. Rather than investing in the professions that act as the country’s backbone, the government continues to make selfish decisions which push young local talent out of the public workforce and into the private sector — or, worse still, out of the country, taking with them the skillsets that Malta cannot do without.