Government to study new pay hike for state workers

MANILA, Philippines — The government will study the need for another round of salary increase for state workers by 2024, a move that was implemented by the previous administration.

The Department of Finance and the Department of Budget and Management said the government has proposed to allocate funds to study the possibility of another round of the Salary Standardization Law (SSL).

Under the proposed P5.268-trillion budget for 2023, P49.5 million has been allocated for the Governance Commission for government-owned and controlled corporations (GCG).

“The national budget proposal for next year includes an appropriation for a study on the need and level of the next round of salary increases in 2024 onward,” Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.

Diokno said the study would also determine whether additional salary hikes in the public sector could be sustainable moving forward given the limited fiscal space of the government.

The SSL will end in 2023 and Budget chief Amenah Pangandaman said the GCG would conduct a study for the next tranche of possible salary standardization increases

The SSL 5, signed by former president Rodrigo Duterte, states that basic salaries of government workers would increase by a weighted average of 23.24 percent by 2023. It also covers public school teachers and nurses.

Employees under salary grades 10 to 15 would be given the highest increase ranging from 20 to 30 percent, while those under SG 25 to 33 would have the lowest increase of eight percent.

Government workers under SG one to 10 would also get an increased pay from 17.5 percent to 20.5 percent over four years.

The law seeks to raise the salaries of government employees, including nurses and teachers, in four tranches from 2020 to 2023.

This is a continuation of an executive order signed in 2016, which also provided four tranches of compensation hike for government and military personnel from 2016 to 2019.