$85M for civil servants pay

Government has injected $85 million to support the pay rise for the 42,000 public service employees in this 2024-2025 National Budget.

This will become effective August 1, 2024.

Minister for Finance Biman Prasad said the pay rise will be based on employee salary bands.

That is from seven per cent to 20 per cent. Those on Band A will have an increase of $5.60 from the previous $4.60, an increase of 20 per cent, which was the lowest wage rate for the civil service.

Contrary to Band B, who are on step 3, the $6.27 an hour will now increase to $7.33 an hour.

“An independent, professional and well equipped civil service is vital for effective service delivery and implementation of Government’s policy agenda,” Mr Prasad said.

“The civil service is the key arm of the Government machinery that provides the administrative prowess and institutional capabilities to ensure that policies are executed in the most efficient and effective manner.”

Mr Prasad said drivers currently getting $7.33 per hour on Band C, step 3, will have their rates increased to $8.33 per hour, an increase of around 14 per cent.

He said Government will do this in a slightly different way.

Mr Prasad highlighted that given that around 5000 of our civil servants have already had step movements in the last few months; all other 33,000 civil servants will also be given a salary increase and adjustment.

“We are restructuring the civil service salary bands by removing the current step 1 and resetting the current step 2 as the new step 1,” he said.

“This effectively means that all our civil servants will now be getting a salary increase ranging from 7 per cent to 10 per cent depending on their current bands and salary steps.”

The new salary structure will be published by the Ministry of Civil Service.

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