Austrian mayor barred from taking a 10% pay cut

Ebenau Mayor Johannes Fürstaller cannot cut his own salary despite wanting to help ease the town’s financial strain.

Ebenau, a community of about 1,500 people in Austria’s Salzburg region, must reduce most spending by 10%.

Salaries and payments set by contract are exempt from those cuts.

Salzburg’s law says officials generally cannot waive pay set by law, except in limited cases that do not apply to Fürstaller.

He earns €6,103.90 gross a month and instead helps out driving the school bus and working at a kindergarten, without extra pay.

He says the salary reduction would be a small contribution, and giving the money away after receiving it would mean paying tax on it first.

Similar rules in Germany also prevent some public officials from waiving legally set pay.