Pensions rise from September, but this time not everyone gets the same. Percentage-based indexation is back, which means a pensioner on 20,228 denars will get around 607 denars more, while the one on the highest pension of 94,332 denars will get around 2,830. The gap is not an error in the arithmetic - it is the logic of the system itself.

Why around three percent

The answer lies in the so-called Swiss formula. Under Article 37 of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance, pensions are indexed twice a year, in March and September. Half the calculation comes from growth in the average wage, half from the rise in the cost of living.

For the September indexation, the first six months of 2026 are compared with the second half of 2025. The average net wage grew by around 4.75 percent, and the cost of living by around 1.17 percent. Fed into the formula, they produce 2.96 percent. So wages are the engine of this increase; inflation contributes considerably less. The final percentage still has to be officially confirmed.

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced the indexation as routine and in line with the law, saying the exact amount would be known soon. Over the past two years pensioners received flat increases of 7,000 denars each.

Who gets how much

If the rate lands at three percent, a pension of 20,000 denars gains 600 denars, one of 25,000 gains 750, one of 30,000 gains 900, one of 40,000 gains 1,200, and one of 50,000 gains 1,500. Only eight people in the country draw the highest pension. They will see the largest nominal increase.

And there is the essential difference from the flat increases: back then everyone got the same amount, now everyone gets the same percentage of their own pension. Whoever had more, gets more. That can be defended as fair - the person who paid in larger contributions gets more back - but for a pensioner on 20,000 denars, the difference between 600 and 7,000 denars is not an abstraction.

The fund's own bill

There are over 350,000 pension recipients in the country, and in the first half of this year alone their number grew by 1,876. That in itself means additional outgoings, before the new indexation is even calculated.

The problem is that the pension fund does not cover its outgoings from contributions alone. According to the State Audit Office's review for 2024, contribution revenue grew by 14 percent, to 71.4 billion denars. Pension outgoings, meanwhile, exceeded 90.2 billion. The state budget patches the hole.

That is exactly why around 4.75 billion denars, or 77.2 million euros, accumulated in the Employment Agency were recently redirected into the pension fund. The pension insurance contribution rose from 18.8 to 19.9 percent, while the unemployment contribution fell from 1.2 to 0.1 percent. The total rate stayed at 28 percent - the same sum, a different distribution.

The fund's director, Nikola Memov, says contributions are being collected on schedule, budget transfers are regular and pensions are paid on time. But even he admits the system has structural problems and needs reform. He also points out that around 13.5 billion denars, or 220 million euros, goes annually on pensioners' health insurance, and asks whether that burden should keep hanging on the pension fund.

For September the bill is clear. The question nobody is asking out loud is what the same bill looks like in ten or twenty years, when there are even more recipients and even fewer people paying in.