Though work in the United Nations attracts professionals for more meaningful reasons than money, you cannot discount salary as a motivation factor. The UN does not keep employees’ income in secret, because it depends only on objective reasons. Every person can calculate what salary it is possible to get in the organization considering the grade of the post, education, place of residence, available insurances, dependents, etc.
Given that the organization hires people who work internationally, the compensation rates also vary depending on whether the job requires travel and business trips. The employees who get local jobs are paid according to the competitive level of local salaries.
Four employment categories determine the future duties, and therefore, the earnings:
- Professional category;
- General services;
- National professional officers;
- Field service.
Professional Category and Field Service
The UN needs to hire highly qualified staff and field service without reference to the place of residence. Most likely, such employees will have to move to another country or travel a lot. Thus, their salary is defined globally additionally taking into account the existence of dependents. The base salary will vary depending on the duty station. In this way, the employees on the similar post level will have approximately the same purchasing power.
General Services and National Professional Officers
As a rule, the employees from this category are hired locally. These staff members don’t have to go on business trips and are not required to change the place of residence due to job needs. They receive compensation following the local salary scale typical for the corresponding position type and level.
The earnings received from the UN organization are not subject to income tax. You may visit https://icsc.un.org/ to learn more about all the factors that influence UN employees’ salaries and benefits.
UN Salary Calculator
In order to provide potential job candidates with an easy and explicit way of UN salary calculation, the organization offers to use an online estimator. Take the next steps to calculate the UN employees’ earnings:
- Visit the website info.undp.org. Follow a corresponding link depending on what salary you want to estimate – for local or international positions. You will be redirected to the calculator.
- Choose appropriate options from the drop-down lists in the left (white) part of the calculator:
- Contract. You can choose whether it is fixed-term or temporary contact and what type exactly;
- Duty station. This field is for the place of work. Choose the country in the top row and the city in the row below.
- Grade and Step. Choose the data that corresponds to the position. You may use the UN guideline to determine the grade and step.
- Dependants. In the box below, indicate if you have a spouse, children and if you receive financial support.
- Assignments and work experience (only for international positions).
- Insurances. Indicate what insurances you have.
After data is provided, you will see the potential salary, allowance, and deductions in the field from the right (blue) side in the local currency and/or USD.