President Granger announces salary increase for public servants

President David Granger on Wednesday announced the following salary increases:

• Public servants’ minimum wage will be increased to $70,000 from $64,220 per month. This represents a nine percent increase for 2019 and an overall increase of seventy-seven per cent since the APNU+AFC Coalition Government entered office in 2015 when the minimum wage stood at $39,540; sweeper-cleaners in the Public Education System will now receive the new minimum wage of $70,000.
• Public servants earning between one hundred thousand dollars and under one million dollars will receive an 8.5 per cent increase;
• Public servants earning less than one hundred thousand dollars will also receive a 9 per cent increase in their salaries; and
• Public servants earning a minimum wage of $64,220 will receive, in their December pay cheque $69,336, a sum in excess of their base salaries.

Public servants – including teachers, nurses, doctors, members of the Defence Force, Police Force and the security services – will benefit from these permanent salary increases. Cabinet recommended, also, significant increases in the following allowances:

• Station Allowances will be increased by over 260 per cent from $2,800 to $10,000;
• Hinterland allowances will be increased by between 100 per cent and 600 per cent from between $4000 and $12,000 to $24,000;
• Risk allowance will be increased by nine hundred percent from $500 to $5000;
• Uniform allowance for health sector workers will be increased from $13,000 and $22,135 to $15,000 and $30,000;
• On-call allowance for doctors will be increased, also.

“Public Servants have received annual increases in their wages and salaries consistently since 2015. Personal allowances have increased significantly, the income-tax rate has been reduced and the tax on employee’s contribution to NIS was removed, over the last four years. Special attention was given, also, to certain categories of workers such as teachers, sweeper-cleaners and engineers, among others,” President Granger said in an address to the nation.