Mayor of Slovak Village Foregoes Salary, Invests Tens of Thousands in Community Development

Róbert Rostáš, mayor of the village of Zemplín in eastern Slovakia, has worked without pay for two years, redirecting his salary toward local development projects. The mayor has invested approximately 40,000 euros of his foregone wages into improving municipal infrastructure and services. Zemplín is a small village in the Košice region, where local government budgets are typically limited and mayors often earn modest salaries that they can choose to waive for community benefit.