The article reflects the historic development of the remuneration structure in the public sector, analyses the correlation between job pay level and individual efforts raised, questions the effectiveness of changes in the remuneration system during the economic downturn period, and highlights future perspectives of remuneration system development. The conclusions are made that in the process of continuous reforms remuneration system has been improved by creating it more transparent and linked directly with work results and professionalism of the employee. Economic downturn has significantly diminished the importance of previously performed remuneration adjustment and public sector credibility raising activities. At the same time, new directions of public service optimization were formulated, which refer also to further improvement of the remuneration system. Despite continuous reforms, remuneration system still does not fulfill several criteria of effective motivational tool, mostly due to limited financial resources and employees’ unawareness about link between job results and remuneration level. The authors propose to improve annual feedback process, to inform employees about actual changes in respective legislation, to strengthen the link between work results and remuneration level, as well as to activate several financial motivators even during the period of economic crisis. Evaluating future development of the remuneration system, it can be concluded that the role of human resources development in the public administration is increasing, and successful and clever implementation of public sector optimization reforms would lead towards competitive remuneration and stability of the employees.