The salaries and Renumeration Commission on Friday launched the third public sector remuneration cycle for the financial year 2021/22 – 2024/25. SRC new policies are set to improve transparency, accountability and equity in public sector remuneration
SRC Chair Lyn Mengich said they will conduct three distinct salary surveys to establish current compensation levels and trends including policies and practices to inform salary structures.
The review of salaries will be based on the evaluation of work done by officers. “We might not be able to know how much anyone will be getting in terms of a pay-cut or a pay rise, until then,” said Mengich.
The new formula will be enforced in the next financial year and will be used to remunerate state and public workers for the next four years.
“The process to survey salaries and remunerations of public servants, has just begun and will run for the next 10 months “Mengich said.
She urged both the public and private institutions to actively participate in the job evaluation and salary survey exercise.
SRC managed to drop the wage bill percentage from 57.3 % in the financial year 2013/14 to 48.1% in the financial year 2018/2019 .The commission intends to lower it to 35% in the consequent financial years.
The commission is mandated to set a four-year renumeration review cycle to benefit the public sector, based on skills and competencies of the workers. The first cycle ran for the financial year 2013/14 – 2017/18, 2017/18 – 2021/22. The current cycle will run for the financial year 2021/22 – 2024/25.
According to the SRC boss, the remuneration cycle shall be anchored on the principles of pay determination as set out in Article 230(4) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 and the SRC Act, 2011.
The remuneration cycle is anchored on fiscal sustainability of public-sector compensation, attraction and retention of skills in public service, recognition of performance and productivity, transparency and fairness and equal pay to persons performing work of equal value.
The SRC Act, 2011, mandates the Commission to establish mechanisms to ensure equal pay for work of equal value. The Commission uses job evaluation as the basis for determining the remuneration of public servants in an objective, transparent, and equitable manner. Job evaluation seeks to achieve internal equity when it compares jobs within the same organization and external equity when jobs are compared with those of other public sector organizations.
The results of job evaluation, therefore, determine the relative worth of jobs in the public sector and inform the assignment of rationalized and equitable job grading and pay structures. Salary Survey Section 11(d) of the SRC Act, 2011, mandates the Commission to conduct comparative surveys on labor market trends in remuneration to determine the monetary worth of the jobs in the public
