Teacher Pay rise In July As Commission Receive Sh17.7 Billion.
Following the Salaries and Remuneration Commission‘s (SRC) recommendations, teachers and government employees will start receiving larger paychecks in July. This is because the SRC’s proposals will result in a larger budgetary allocation for 2023–24.
The Treasury has allotted Sh17.7 billion to the wages commission, according to documents presented to the departmental committee on finance and national planning, which is chaired by Molo MP Kuria Kimani. The funds will be used to finish up any outstanding employment evaluations.
The nature of the pay boost that teachers and civil officials would receive is still being discussed between Treasury and SRC; if a settlement is reached, the money will be distributed to the various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
If this is put into effect, it will end a two-year freeze on salary reviews for teachers and other public employees. However, the increase comes at a time when the government is struggling with cash flow, which has caused, among other things, a salary delay in March as it deals with pressure to control its ballooning public wage bill and significant debt repayment obligations.
According to Treasury Principle Secretary Chris Kiptoo, “We have Sh17.7 billion for public servants’ salary increment provisions, and this has been provided for the implementation of SRC job evaluation.”
This sum is a portion of the Sh70.96 billion that the Treasury has set aside to fund important policy interventions as part of the recurring expenditure vote. Additionally, Sh2.1 billion has been put aside to pay the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) contractual obligations that are over Sh7 billion in arrears.
In 2021, SRC put a freeze on public employee compensation increases in order to give the government time to stabilize the economy after the shocks caused by Covid-19.
Despite the fact that the nation is still coping with the effects of the epidemic and other shocks, including as a protracted drought and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, this has been recalled.
According to Section 11 of the SRC Act, 2011, which established a four-year review cycle, the commission was assessing compensation and benefits in the public sector as of February 2023, according to SRC chairperson Lynn Mengich.
Although the second face was never finished owing to the Covid-triggered freeze in 2021, the first cycle covered the years from 2013 to 2017 and the second covered the years from 2017 to 2022.
SRC performed the review to create the job grading structure despite anticipating in February that pay for the majority of jobs might not change significantly.
SRC is already implementing extensive improvements in the payment of benefits by coordinating and streamlining benefits across the public sector.
In response to a rise in rental prices, particularly in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Mombasa cities, there are plans to enhance the housing allowances for civil officials.
Prior to December of last year, the SRC had granted salary raise petitions totaling Sh2.18 billion. Bonuses, awards, salary reviews, allowances, and collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) were among the requests.
If enacted, the upcoming salary increase will provide relief to the approximately 954,000 civil officials who are struggling financially as a result of the challenging economic climate that has driven up the cost of living.
Despite the fact that the country’s inflation rate was 7.2% as of April, down from 9.2% in December, employees have yet to experience this because of high food and fuel prices.
Many Kenyans are struggling to make ends meet as a result of rising transportation, food, and commodity prices, as well as school and rent costs over the previous two years, while wages have mostly stagnated.
However, a boost in public sector compensation may cause unrest among private sector employees, who may want wage rises to match those of their public service counterparts.
President William Ruto recently unveiled a new salary policy intended to establish fair pay for employees in the public and private sectors during celebrations of Labor Day.
Civil servants were negatively impacted by salary delays for public sector employees between February and March, but the situation is currently getting better as the Treasury pays the arrears in batches.
Although not a phenomenon that just affects civil officials, pay delays have always forced them to deal with loan sanctions in addition to having an impact on the remittance of statutory deductions, including retirement savings.
President Ruto has stated that his government will not borrow to pay the public sector salaries, which account for about half of all government revenues, despite intentions to raise compensation.
On Sunday, he stated that delaying paychecks rather than borrowing money to pay employees was preferable for the government.
Following President William Ruto’s criticism of the nation’s low revenue to Gross Domestic Product, Kenyans must now prepare for more tax pain in order to finance the Sh3.6 trillion expenditure plan when the Budget is presented to Parliament next month.
President Ruto underlined his concerns about the low revenue-to-GDP ratio in an interview last Sunday, suggesting that the nation may soon face increased taxation.
He claimed that compared to other countries like South Africa, Morocco, and Tunisia, which have ratios above 20%, Kenya today has tax income that is only 14% of GDP.
“I want to reassure my fellow citizens that we are not overworking ourselves. We were collecting nearly Sh200 billion when Kibaki became office. We had collected nearly Sh800 billion when he left,” stated Ruto. The actual problem is that, in comparison to our contemporaries, our tax as a percentage of GDP is still far lower.
His remarks come at a time when some Kenyans are anxious about their tax liabilities because they are struggling with a high cost of living and fear that additional taxes, as suggested in the Budget statement, will reduce their take-home pay.
It has already been announced that the opposition Azimio One Kenya Coalition Party will organize its MPs to vote against the Finance Bill.
Teacher Pay rise In July As Commission Receive Sh17.7 Billion including
