Dear Editor,
In an article published by the Guyana Chronicle on November 11, 2019, the Minister of Finance said that public servants received more than a 75 percent increase in wages and salaries for the period 2015-2019. Specifically, the article quoted the Minister as saying, “… By the time we are finished with salaries for this year, I can guarantee you that between July 1, 2015, and January 1, 2019, it will be over 75 percent increase.”
It is instructive to note that the Minister did not make any distinction between increases granted to public servants who received the minimum wage and those earning above the minimum wage. He referred to wages and salaries, generally, which is disingenuous. The fact is that the minimum wage increased from $39,540 (old minimum wage) and $42,703 in 2015 to 70,000 in 2019. The increases in the minimum wage, therefore, ranged between 77 and 63 percent.
However, the average public servant earning above the minimum wage would have received less than 70 percent over the same period. The reason for this is simple. Salary increases were granted on a sliding scale. The table below shows the salary increases given to public servants earning above the minimum wage.
Table 1: Increases granted for different salary bands
Source: Budget Speeches (various years)
If we were to compute the cumulative increases over the period 2015-2019, they would approximate to 52.4 percent, 39.17 percent, 33.75%, 28.23% and 20.84 percent for those earning below $100,000, $100,000-300,000, $300,000-$500,000, $500,000-$800,000 and $800,000-$1 million respectively. The claim that salaries and wages increased by 70 percent is as disingenuous as the arguments advanced by his colleague Basil Williams regarding the majority of 65. It is also an insult to the intelligence of public servants who know they did not receive increases anywhere close to 70 percent.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)
