The Georgian government plans to increase the cap on contract-based (non-staff) public employees from the current 10% to 15%, according to a new draft law submitted to Parliament.
Under the proposal, the 10% limit will remain in municipalities, but ministries and other state agencies will be allowed to employ non-staff workers up to 15% of their total authorized staff. Until now, exceeding the 10% threshold required special approval from the Government Administration; the new legislation would make a higher limit the norm.
For example, a public institution with a staff quota of 300 employees would now be able to hire 45 contract-based workers, instead of 30.
Despite the significance of the change, the government’s explanatory note does not specify how many non-staff employees currently work in state institutions, leaving this data opaque. What is known, however, are the amounts paid to them. In the first quarter of 2026, non-staff workers received 154.4 million GEL in compensation—1.5 million GEL more than the previous year.
During the same period, staff employees received 775 million GEL. Notably, the 154 million GEL paid to non-staff workers equals 20% of the total wage bill for the 117,000 staff employees. This suggests two possibilities:
Non-staff workers earn significantly higher average salaries, or their actual number far exceeds the current legal 10% limit, which multiple State Audit Office reports have already flagged as being routinely violated.
In 2025, public agencies paid 2.96 billion GEL in salaries to 117,000 staff employees, while non-staff employees—whose exact number remains unknown—received 684 million GEL, equaling 23% of the staff wage bill. This again raises questions about either their higher pay or the extent to which institutions surpass the legal hiring cap.
According to Georgian law, a contract-based (non-staff) employee is someone hired under a labor contract to perform supporting or non-permanent functions within a public institution. Unlike public servants, these workers undergo less strict selection processes, their duties are often loosely defined, and hiring practices may carry higher corruption risks.
Growth in compensation for non-staff workers over the years:
2016: 170 million GEL
2017: 182 million GEL
2018: 217 million GEL
2019: 242 million GEL
2020: 296 million GEL
2021: 360 million GEL
2022: 439 million GEL
2023: 516 million GEL
2024: 606 million GEL
2025: 684 million GEL
