Mozambique: Minimum wage in Public Administration almost doubles – Watch

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Mozambique: Minimum wage in Public Administration almost doubles – Watch

6:28 CAT | 14 Jul 2022

Screen grab: TVM

Sigauque refused to describe the TSU as a wage rise – but that is clearly what it is, at least for the lowest paid workers of the state administration.

The new Unified Wage Scale (TSU) for the Mozambican public administration almost doubles the minimum wage for public servants.

Announcing the numbers for the long-awaited TSU at a Maputo press conference on Wednesday, the deputy national director of public accounts in the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Abilio Sigauque, said that, as from this month, the minimum monthly wage in the public administration rises from 4,668 to 8.758 meticais (from 73 to 137 US dollars, at the current exchange rate). This is an increase of 87.6 per cent.

At the opposite end of the scale is the salary of the President of the Republic, which is 165,578 meticais (equivalent to 2,587 dollars). That is just the basic wage: when the various allowances are added, President Filipe Nyusi’s monthly salary becomes 462,000 meticais.

Prior to the TSU, the President’s salary was not public knowledge. But, according to the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, Nyusi used to earn slightly more than 150,000 meticais a month, plus allowances.

The salaries of other senior state figures are calculated as percentages of the President’s salary. The second figure in the state, the chairperson of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, will earn 80 per cent of the President’s salary.

The three top figures in the judicial system, the President of the Supreme Court, the President of the Administrative Tribunal and the Chairperson of the Constitutional Council, will also earn 80 per cent of the President’s salary.

For the Prime Minister the figure is 77 per cent, and for ministers it is 75 per cent. The ombudsman will also be paid 75 per cent of the Presidential salary.

The deputies of the Assembly of the Republic will each receive 75 per cent of Nyusi’s salary. The TSU thus seems to strip the deputies of the power to fix their own wages in the annual debate on the budget of the Assembly.

There are 21 levels to the TSU – the minimum wage is level one, and the President of the Republic is on level 21.

There are 382,728 employees in the public administration. The government has promised that in no case will any of them earn less with the TSU than they were warning previously.

But so far, TSU wages have only been worked out for 80 per cent of them (306,000). The other 20 per cent will continue to receive their old wages, and their TSU wage rise will be backdated.

Sigauque refused to describe the TSU as a wage rise – but that is clearly what it is, at least for the lowest paid workers of the state administration.