7% salary increase: Govt pays out $10.5B in wages, salaries in December

Over 50,000 public servants, teachers, members of the Disciplined Services, and Government pensioners received their 2021 salary increase over the last week which included the 7 per cent increase that was announced by the Government.
The retroactive salary increases along with the substantive December salaries and pensions placed $10.5 billion in the hands of these categories of Guyanese
Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh had previously instructed that all efforts be made to ensure that eligible persons receive their salaries together with the retroactive amounts on the designated payday, and he had committed that these payments would be paid in time for the Christmas season.
As a result, staff of the Finance Ministry along with representatives from the various finance departments across Ministries and regions worked tirelessly to ensure that the Government’s promise was fulfilled.
In emphasising the importance of persons receiving their payment last week, Minister Singh also acknowledged the efforts of the many staff involved in ensuring that the payrolls of the various agencies were processed on time.
The PPP/C Government has continued to take a multifaceted approach in improving the lives and livelihoods of our citizens. This injection will also stimulate economic activity across the country as the $10.5 billion placed in the hands of employees in the public sector will be multiplied as workers spend their increase in disposable income in markets, shops, or other businesses across the country.
Only recently, $250,000 one-off cash grants were distributed to each of the severed sugar workers from the Enmore, Skeldon, Rose Hall and Wales Sugar Estates. This totalled to over $1.3 billion.

Since coming into office in 2020, the Government has implemented a number of initiatives towards improving the livelihoods of Guyanese in the face of the global COVID 19 pandemic and the real impacts of climate change.
In 2020, the Government immediately implemented a COVID-19 cash grant, where $25,000 was disbursed per household. In 2021, the monthly old-age pension was increased from $20,500 to $25,000 and public assistance increased from $9000 to $12,000. In August 2021, special measures were announced for the provision of a one-off grant of $25,000 to all old-age pensioners, public assistance recipients, and persons living with disabilities.
The Government restored and increased the Because We Care cash grants of $19,000 to the parents of school-age children and further extended the programme to children attending private schools.
Importantly, the Government has also committed $400 million for a special 2021 payout to be made to frontline workers in the health sector who continue to support our health sector in facing the new and ongoing challenges posed by the COVID 19 pandemic.
The Government assures its continued commitment to work assiduously to offer a better quality of life for all citizens.