Effective July 1, 2015, the minimum salary in the public service will be $50,000 per month while public servants who earned more will receive a 5 percent salary increase plus an additional $5000 monthly as of the same date, Minis-ter of Finance Winston Jordan announced yesterday.
“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,” Jordan said during his presentation of the 2015 Budget yesterday.
A substantial salary increase for public servants had been one of the key promises of the APNU+AFC government.
“Effective July 1, 2015 all other public servants will receive a 5 percent salary increase plus an additional $5,000 monthly,” Jordan added. This, he said, will allow for a greater increase in the lower income brackets. He stated that for example, a worker currently earning $50,000 will have a monthly increase of $7,500, or 15 percent while 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,” the finance minister said.
Questions might be raised by public servants as to why the effective date for the increase wasn’t January 1st this year.
Jordan had noted that President David Granger has committed to give Guyanese “a good life and mandated his Cabinet to root out inequalities where they exist.” He recalled Granger’s address to Parliament where the President had spoken of 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,” Jordan said.
Meantime, he also announced an increase for sweeper/cleaners within the education system who from September, will be paid $312 per hour. Jordan noted that there are some 1000 sweeper/cleaners within the education system. “It would be remiss, were our Government to increase the wages of the teachers and education administrators without addressing those persons who are essential to school health and maintenance and the care of the most precious resource – our children. I am pleased to announce, therefore, that with effect from September 1, 2015 every part time hourly paid cleaner will receive $312 per hour, reflecting a 54 percent increase,” Jordan said.
The plight of sweepers/ cleaners had been drawn several years ago to APNU and the AFC who now make up the coalition government.
