CYPRUS: Civil servants to be richly rewarded in new pay scheme

The pay gap between those working in the public and private sectors is set to grow with top civil servants earning up to €40 an hour.

When many Cypriots scrape by on €5 an hour those in the public sector earn a lot more and many would perceive this unfair.

Public sector employees will be paid monthly between €1,132 (at the lowest end of the scale) and €7,249 (the top end), the Accountant General’s office announced.

The new salary scheme, effective as of this month, will see civil servants pay range from €8 to €40 for every hour on the job.

As of July, the inflation linked allowance have been reinstated and cutbacks have been reduced.

This comes at a time when private sector salaries have hardly budged in recent years.

According to the Accountant General, the average hourly wage of civil servants ranges between €8.26 (A1) to € 40.44 (A16).

Senior employees are being paid five times more than someone on a starting scale.

The majority of employees are on the A8 scale with an hourly rate of €15.94.

A civil servant on the A10 pay scale will receive €20.94 an hour and those on A13 will get €30 per hour.

In Cyprus average monthly earnings during the first quarter of 2018, seasonally adjusted, is estimated at €1,897 compared to €1,890 during Q4 2017, an increase of 0.4%, according to state data.