More than 80 per cent of public sector employees are earning less than GH₵3000 with the average monthly net salary of employees being GH¢2,594.
In all, about 533,179 employees earned between GHS1,000 and GHS2,999 while some 23,625 employees earned less than GHS1000.
Meanwhile, the highest paid earner takes home GH₵33,855 which is almost 81 times as high as the net salary of the lowest paid worker who earns GH418.
These are findings of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in its maiden Ghana 2022 Public Sector Earnings Inequality study, which analysed the December 2022 earnings of 687,984 public sector employees belonging to 50 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) and on 129 payrolls.
Speaking to findings of the report, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician, explained that the study, which was based on data from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, was not exhaustive as it excluded Article 71 holders, Public Universities employees, Security agencies and other non-subvented institutions.
He said the conversation on earnings inequalities was crucial to measuring productivity and monitoring progress in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In that regard, he said, highlighting the inequalities in earnings through the study was geared towards enhancing equity, which was the starting point of addressing inequality.
“A conversation of fairness cannot happen if you don’t know the state of inequality. If we all think and believe that the way to go was equity, then we should know the state of inequality, ” he said.
Prof Annim said the Service intended to rope in the private sector to have a true representation on earnings inequalities to inform policy decisions in the country.
He expressed readiness to support MDAs in the computation of institution specific earnings inequality to inform discussions on staff productivity.
“Moving forward the Service will complement the use of this administrative data source with other traditional data sources that will provide information on wealth and earnings for both public and private sectors, ” he added.
Prof. William Baah-Boateng, Head, University of Ghana Department of Economics, said there was need to deemphasis educational qualification as a basis for rewarding contribution of employees to productivity.
“This has caused many people to get PHDs, however, they get it. This is because the issue is not about what you are contributing but your qualification, ” he stated.
