EINIGE ASPEKTE DER ESTNISCHEN GEHALTSPOLITIK 1 CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE ESTONIAN WAGES POLICY.

The objective of the paper is to bring up again the important issue – the fact that the academic staff, researchers and support staff of universities have low salaries in Estonia and their work is not highly valued or appreciated in the society, and to assess the situation. Unless changes are made soon in this area, qualified persons will gradually move from universities and establishments of higher education to other areas/sectors of national economy (some of them probably also to other countries) and the quality, competitiveness and standards of teaching and research activities will decline. Development of the whole Estonian national economy would suffer. This is the opinion of both the heads of the universities and many practical experts of the economy who are familiar with the situation. The research tasks of the paper are: to identify and highlight positions on the problem of salaries in Estonian higher education; to present, study and assess salary levels in Estonia; to examine the positions of Estonian politicians in the issue of salaries; to draw conclusions. Instead of theoretical thoughts/positions and comparisons between them and their synthesis, the author of the paper above all relies on practical opinions and the required trends/changes arising from them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]