Civil servants will receive minimum wage allowance

Finance Ministry decided on Wednesday to allocate a fixed allowance for civil servants instead of changing the basic salaries, which will go into effect in January 2022.

Secretary General of Pay Commission, Dr. Mohamed Faizal said at a press conference held at the Finance Ministry that the implementation of the minimum wage will rise the salaries of 11,828 civil servants.

According to the ministry, out of the 11,828 civil servants, 50 percent will see an increase of MVR 1,500 while 35 percent will see an increase of MVR 1,000. Eleven percent will observe an increase of MVR 500 while less than four percent will get an increment less than MVR 500.

The minimum wage allowance will only be given to current civil servants who do not earn MVR 7,000 when their basic salaries and fixed allowances are combined. The minimum wage allowance is paid to civil servants working in support service ranks and general service ranks.

Civil servants that earn more than MVR 7,000 due to special duty allowance will not qualify to receive the additional minimum wage allowance as well.

“The resolution calling for minimum wage states the minimum amount can be obtained by the sum of the basic salary and fixed allowances. [This] is a fixed allowance. Therefore they will receive minimum wage,” Faizal said.

Since the basic salary has not been changed, their overtime and the money that goes into their pension will not increase either.

Minimum wage was set as MVR 4,500 for small businesses, MVR 7,000 for medium sized businesses and MVR 8,000 for big businesses. Civil servants will be required to pay Rf. 8,000 per month as their minimum wage for eight hour work days. For the same set of hours big businesses will be required to pay Rf. 10,200.

Director General of Civil Service Commission (CSC) Abdulla Saeed said they will provide details on what changes will be made to their salaries to those that qualify for the minimum wage allowance before January 15.

An additional MVR 500 million has been allocated for the state budget next year to bring about minimum wage and salary parity. MVR 750 million was allocated in 2023 to bring about equal pay for employees while MVR 1 billion has been planned for 2024.