|
Dear Editors,
The move to increase wages for public servants and
pensioners based on the percentage of their earning
scales essentially benefits high salaried
categories. Given the rate of inflation on consumer
goods, it is important for the government to push
the private sector to increase wages.
Going by the Civil Service Agency's official
announcement, government employees at the lower
income levels have their monthly earnings increased
by 37pc of gross salaries. However, the higher the
salary of civil servants the lower the increase of
percentage, for there is as low as an 18pc increase
in the category of high earning public servants, the
Agency notes.
Accordingly, the lowest wage category, 320 Br per
month, is entitled to the 37pc increase package; the
salary would climb to 438.40 Br. While a civil
servant in the highest earning group getting an 18pc
wage increase, earns 4,130 Br monthly.
A closer look into the incentive packages high
income earners receive reveals that the change is
not so progressive.
Fringe benefits for higher income earners range from
housing facilities to means of transport both for
themselves and their families freely rationed with
165lt of diesel or 135lt of fuel each month
depending on the type of vehicles used, as well as
100lt of fuel consumption per month. This is not to
mention the free medical services given to their
children, both domestically and abroad.
These officials receive a monthly 100 Br landline
stipend and between 200 and 250 Br for mobile usage,
according to the Agency's announcement made public
in Addis Zemen earlier.
Given the fact that the rank and file in the civil
service hierarchy who earn the lower wages do not
receive such packages, the price hikes on consumer
goods affect these lower salaried civil servants
most.
A larger increase for the low-income group is needed
to even out the fringe benefits. A look into the
United States' (US) approach 70 years ago reveals a
more equitable strategy.
At the height of the 1930s Great Depression in the
US, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had targeted
lower wage employees in private companies and public
enterprises to lessen inflation's burden.
Roosevelt's prescription to remedy the problem
mainly focused on the three core objectives.
The lone American president to be elected to four
terms in office paved the path for the right to
association by employees who set the minimum wage
level through negotiation with their employers as
well as fixing the maximum working hours. Employees
started to secure the rights to have a board of
arbitrators formed by the government to resolve
disputes with their employers.
Moreover, employees working in every industry made
strides in workers' rights, securing safer
employment environments. Above all, industries came
under steady pressure from the Roosevelt
Administration to honour fair trade practice.
Moreover, under the platform of 'Private Economic
Power is a Public Trust', the tax rate on high
income earners was increased to compensate the
public good through having the 'Social Security Act'
legislated.
The tide of the Great Depression that spiralled out
Republican President Herbert Hoover from office in
the late 1920s was diligently controlled after
Roosevelt took charge of office and enacted his
prescriptions such as unemployment insurance,
retirement insurance, as well as the much heralded
campaign to encourage the emigration of unemployed
urban dwellers from various American cities to the
rural areas and effectively engage them to
participate in agricultural production and in
micro-industrial activities.
As is the case in Ethiopia, the Roosevelt White
House had focused on improving the livelihoods of
the American farmers by way of creating resettlement
programmes and striving to find greener pasture for
affected farming communities.
The introduction of mortgage relief for the farmers
that sought development expansion was one the major
contributing factors to calm down the tide of
depression. Many citizens in lower earning groups
had their bank debts either written-off or reduced
to save their mortgaged houses.
Thanks to Roosevelt, the multifaceted problems that
trapped American society in the 1930s took a 67-year
holiday.
The current economic reality in Ethiopia defined by
the existing inflation can be remedied through
implementing the American experiences as urgently as
possible.
The traditional associations in the forms of
senbete (religious meetings among church
members), wedding, death commemoration, students'
graduation ceremonies, as well as birthday
celebrations, should be netted in the tax system.
The invitees presented in such traditional
gatherings should pay tax and would collect receipts
for their payments. This, however, should not
include those who do not have means of earning or
are physically disabled. The sums collected from
this source should service to compensate the
unemployed masses, senior citizens income earning
capability and the money would be used to assist the
physically disabled people.
It is important to note that occasions such as these
take place as frequently as every other week and the
revenue could play a significant role in poverty
reduction.
|
