The government has made a crucial decision: starting January 1 2027, the base salaries of cultural sector workers will increase by up to 70%. The National Interests Advocacy Network “ANTS” sincerely welcomes this step. Over the past year, our team has consistently raised the issue of the personnel crisis in the cultural sector, emphasizing that without decent remuneration, the state risks losing the people who preserve Ukrainian cultural heritage, knowledge, and historical memory. We have raised this topic in the public space, prepared analytics, and united experts and government representatives around the search for solutions. Therefore, today’s government decision is an important step in the right direction and evidence that the problem has finally received proper attention at the state level.
Back in April 2026, we gathered experts and industry representatives for the public discussion “Does salary decide everything? How to preserve the guardians of heritage and knowledge about it“, where we discussed the threatening crisis with staffing and remuneration in the fields related to the preservation of national heritage. Now we are continuing our advocacy campaign to retain professionals working in the cultural sector.
Thanks to the salary increase, we have a chance to stop the outflow of personnel and the catastrophic aging of the profession, when young people refuse to enter the field due to humiliating advance payments of 3800 hryvnias.
But raising salaries is only the first step, which alone will not cure the industry. Without comprehensive systemic changes, the problem will return. We detailed this challenge using the example of one of the most vulnerable areas in our analytical report “Systemic crisis of the Ukrainian library industry and ways to overcome it“.
To truly transform culture and resolve the crisis (in particular, in the library sector), we propose implementing a number of key developments:
-
Provide institutions with greater financial and managerial autonomy so they can develop.
-
Change the outdated evaluation system: the effectiveness of an institution should be measured by its real educational and social impact on the community.
-
Launch programs for regular updates of collections, purchase of modern equipment, and implementation of electronic services.
-
Ensure targeted support for institutions in frontline communities, which often serve as humanitarian hubs.
The start of the remuneration reform is great news and an investment in preserving human resources. However, there is a lot of work ahead. The ANTS Network will continue to monitor the implementation of these changes and advocate for the transition of cultural institutions to a modern, viable management model.
