Minimum salary for public servants now $50,000, others to get 5% hike plus $5,000 per month

Finance Minister Winston Jordan today announced that effective July 1, 2015 the minimum salary in the public service will be $50,000 per month and all other public servants will receive a 5% increase plus an additional $5,000 per month as of the same date.

A salary increase for public servants had been one of the key promises of the APNU+AFC government.

Salary Increase

6.15     Mr. Speaker, His Excellency has committed to give the people of this great country a good life and mandated his Cabinet to root out inequalities where they exist. In his Address to this House, on the opening of this 11^th Parliament, he stated, “there will be moderate increases in salaries paid to public servants and pensions paid to seniors”. His words have guided our considerations in these 2015 measures to address salary increases. Mr. Speaker, this administration is committed to reducing the income distribution gap within Government and will ensure that increases granted to lower income level brackets will substantially raise the disposable income for those most in need.

6.16     Mr. Speaker, I wish to announce an increase in the minimum basic salary of each public servant to $50,000, effective July 1, 2015. This translates to a 26.4 percent increase for those still earning the old minimum wage of $39,540 and 17.1 percent for over 4,000 public servants earning the current minimum wage of $42,703.

6.17     Effective July 1, 2015 all other public servants will receive a 5 percent salary increase plus an additional $5,000 monthly. This, Mr. Speaker will allow for a greater increase in the lower income brackets. For example, a worker currently earning $50,000 will have a monthly increase of $7,500, or 15 percent; a person currently receiving a salary of $100,000 would get a 10 percent increase. Since the bulk of the public servants earn $100,000 and below, these are substantial increases, more than was promised to these categories of workers. These increases are payable to workers who were employed on or before January 1, 2015.