THE coalition has raised the minimum basic salary in the public service to $64,000, which reflected a progressive increase since the administration took office.

Touching on incomes during his budget presentation on Monday, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan told the House that after protracted negotiations, the government was able to ink a three year agreement, 2016-2018, with the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU).

For 2018, the Memorandum of Agreement will see teachers receiving two percentage points above the increases granted in 2016 (payable in January 2019), no further increases for 2017 than those previously granted, and an 8 per cent across-the-board increase in salary, effective January 1, 2018. Government plans to honour the remaining measures of the agreement, in 2019, Jordan said.

He also officially announced an increase in public servants salaries which ranged from seven per cent to 0.5 per cent. The government has also raised the minimum basic salary for each public servant to $64,200 per month.

Jordan had previously acknowledged that since 2017, the government has had to grapple with financial challenges that have stymied the payment of year-end bonuses, “However, we have paid salary increases beyond the “five per cent”, such that the minimum wage has rapidly increased by nearly 52 per cent in two years, from $39,570, in 2015 to $60,000 in 2017.

It took the PPP/C administration nine years to move the minimum wage by a similar percentage, or from $26,070 in 2006 to $39,570 in 2015. All workers can expect salary increases going forward, especially in 2018, 2019 and 2020.”