Public servants including constitutional office holders, teachers, and members of the Disciplined Forces will be getting a 7% increase in their salaries for the year 2021.
The increase will be retroactive to January and will be taxed.
The salary increase announcement was made by the Senior Minister responsible for Finance Dr. Ashni Singh in a special nationally televised announcement this afternoon.
“This increase will be granted retroactively to 1 January 2021, and work will start immediately to ensure that it is processed and paid to eligible employees together with their December salary and in time for the festive Christmas season. Instructions have already been issued for the work to commence immediately to implement these measures we have just announced. At the same time, your Government is also currently hard at work on preparations for Budget 2022, which will continue the steps we have already started taking to place our One Guyana irreversibly on the path to national prosperity for the benefit of All Guyanese”, Dr. Singh announced.
In addition to the across-the-board salary increase, the Minister also announced that the Government has set aside $400 million as a special payment for frontline workers who continue to battle the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. .
He said the details of the frontline payout will be announced shortly and will be made to eligible employees before the end of December 2021.
Moving into 2022, the Finance Minister said the Government will be looking at the salary scale in the public service and efforts will be made to fix various anomalies.
“Your Government has recognised the existence of a number of anomalies and disparities across positions within the public service salary scales, as a result of which there are marked inconsistencies across the pay received by persons holding similar qualifications but occupying different posts depending on the agency in which they work, the post to which they are appointed, and the salary scale in which their post is classified. For example, a new graduate with a degree in environmental science might be earning $120,000 in one agency while a new graduate with an identical degree in environmental science might be earning $190,000 in another agency. Government will be taking steps next year to reduce these inconsistencies, by making suitable adjustments to salaries in order to improve the parity and consistency with which persons with comparable qualifications are paid. Provision will be made for this in Budget 2022”, Dr. Singh announced.
The announcement by the Minister of Finance this afternoon came after months of public servants asking questions about salary increases. There were no salary increases in 2020 and there was no mention of that in the Minister’s statement this afternoon.
It should also be noted that the President and his Ministers and Members of Parliament and other constitutional office holders will all benefit from the 7% increase to their salaries.
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