As 2024 comes to a close, Government has ensured that $18 billion in disposable income are in the hands of public servants, marking the continuation of the Government’s policy of granting billions of dollars in salary increases every year.
According to the Ministry of Finance in a statement on Tuesday, 69,000 public servants including members of the disciplined services and Government pensioners received their 10 per cent across the board increase last week.
This is in keeping with the historic multi-year agreement signed recently between the Government of Guyana and the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU). This agreement also caters for “Debunching” of salaries within the public service with effect from July 1st, 2024 in order to recognize longevity of service.
It also marks the first time that qualification allowances for persons who would have furthered their studies in their relevant field of study. And according to the Ministry in its statement, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh had revealed that efforts were made to pay out this increase before Christmas and the inevitable Christmas shopping.
“It was only in October last and following the conclusion of the Government of Guyana and the
Guyana’s Teacher’s Union (GTU) multi-year agreement on salaries and non-salaries benefits for
teachers covering the period 2024 to 2026, that teachers were also paid a 10 per cent salary increase placing over $2.5 billion of additional disposable income in the hands of our over
14,000 educators,” the Ministry said.
The Finance Ministry
“This year’s salary increase for public servants brings the cumulative total of across-the-board
increases to 35 per cent over the last four years. Further, as agreed in the multi-year agreements,
the GOG and GTU and GPSU an 8 per cent salary increase to be paid to all public servants and
teachers for 2025, which would amount to a 46 per cent cumulative salary increase over the five
years from 2021 to 2025,” it added.
It was further explained by the Ministry that over 12,000 members of the disciplined services have received their year-end, one month bonus. The provision of this bonus in keeping with the recent announcement by President and Commander in Chief, Dr Irfaan Ali, at a Christmas luncheon at Base Camp Seweyo. According to the Ministry of Finance, the payout of the bonus amounts to $1.8 billion.
“This is a demonstration of our commitment again to improving your welfare. The job of a soldier is not defined. The job of a soldier requires agility. It requires continuous training. It requires discipline, commitment, fitness,” President Ali had said.
“It requires a life that is very much different…a life that is selfless, one that is completely dedicated to the protection and the safeguard of our country and our people,” the Commander in Chief had also said, also paying tribute to the officers for their hard work and dedication to serve the nation.
Since returning to office in August 2020, Government has implemented a multitude of measures
to improve the lives of public servants and Guyanese at large, including the payment of a seven per cent across-the-board increase in 2021, followed by an eight per cent in 2022 and an additional 6.5 per cent last year, cumulating to a 23 per cent salary increase over the period.
The Government also restored the one-month tax-free year-end bonus to the disciplined services, a move which placed over $6 billion in the hands of the members of the disciplined over the period 2020 to 2024. There was also an increase in the income tax threshold from $65,000 to $75,000 monthly in 2022, to $85,000 monthly in 2023, then further to $100,000 monthly at the beginning of this year, placing over $9 billion of additional disposable income in the hands of our workers.
Additionally, there was a 75.6 per cent increase in the monthly old-age pension from $20,500 monthly in 2020 to $36,000 monthly this year, as well as a more than doubling of the public assistance payments from $9,000 monthly in 2020, to $19,000 monthly this year.
The PPP/C Government also won praise when it not only restored the cash grants to the parents of school-aged children, but increased the amount provided for each child to $40,000 and extended the programme to children attending private schools.
“Together with the $5,000 uniform grants, this amounts to $45,000 per child and aggregates to an over $26 billion injection into the homes of school children over the period 2021 to 2024,” the Ministry said.
Mention was also made of the 36 per cent increase in the minimum wage for private sector employees to $60,147, in keeping with the recommendations of the tripartite committee. There were also salary adjustments for 5,000 health workers and almost 9,000 members of the disciplined services implemented to resolve anomalies across comparable positions in the public service, placing an additional $3 billion into their hands.
In addition, in 2023, prior to the 2024 agreement with the GTU, adjustments were made to the salary and allowances of graduate teachers.
