Bespectacled Bank of Estonia boss Andres Lipstok, who is currently said to scrape by on little more than 100,000 kroons per month, has endeared himself to the public by claiming that he could quite happily live on 5000 kroons every four weeks, before tax.In a Q&A with Eesti Päevaleht, Lipstok - who recently made headlines for discouraging people to ask for a pay rise in conditions of runaway inflation - poo-pooed ideas that a man in his position would struggle if his salary were cut by 95%. “Of course I would get by,” he said. “A lot of people in Estonia make do with 5000 kroons.”
While predicting that the average salary in Estonia would catch up to Western levels (roughly 1000 euros per month) by 2010, Lipstok nevertheless warned against it rising too high too quickly. This could hinder the creation of new jobs, he said, and lead to higher unemployment. Nor does he think that basing the minimum wage on the average salary would be good for society: “Because then it wouldn't have anything to do with performance results,” he explained.
What kind of performance do you have to give, though, to earn ten times the average salary?
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