Thousands of public sector employees, including general civil servants and judicial workers, received immediate salary increases starting Saturday, marking the official commencement of a massive government-led initiative aimed at achieving comprehensive pay harmonisation across the state.
The incumbent administration has allocated a significant budget of USD 108.9 million for the upcoming fiscal year to facilitate this effort, strengthening the core state pay framework and resolving long-standing issues of pay disparity.
The specific beneficiaries of the immediate increase are all civil service employees, judicial employees, and local council-based civil servants who had not been part of any recent pay adjustments.
The pay harmonisation effort addresses a widening salary gap that emerged after various state agencies received raises at different times, leaving large segments of the civil service with stagnant pay.
Announced by President Dr Mohamed Muizzu in the annual Presidential Address and reiterated in a social media post in September, the government has committed to harmonising salaries across all remaining state sectors by the year 2026.
This comprehensive strategy follows earlier successful efforts to adjust remuneration for the military, police, as well as healthcare workers and educators, whose salaries were increased by the Pay Commission in 2022.
By dedicating major funding to this parity project, the government aims to bring about a positive and long-overdue change in the remunerations of all public sector workers.