Budget department says gov’t workers will get higher salaries.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced that government workers will get higher pay starting this month. The salary increase is part of the last tranche of the mandated salary hikes for state employees.

Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman, in a statement said that the fourth tranche of the pay increase mandated under Republic Act (RA) 11466, or the Salary Standardization Law of 2019, took effect last January 1, 2023.

“The government recognizes the indispensable role of its dedicated personnel in serving our beloved country. We are firmly committed to help them amidst rising prices of goods and services. We hope this latest salary increase will cushion the impact of inflation,” Pangandaman said.

The budget secretary had recently signed two separate Budget Circulars on the implementation of the fourth tranche of Salary Schedule for civilian personnel and local government unit (LGU) workers.

RA 11466 covers all positions for civilian personnel, whether regular, casual, or contractual in nature, appointive or elective, full-time or part-time, from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

Also, it covers constitutional commissions and other constitutional offices; state universities and colleges; and government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) which are not covered by RA 10149.

The SSL V also applies to all positions for salaried LGU personnel, whether regular, contractual or casual in nature, elective or appointive; on full-time or part-time basis, now existing or thereafter created in LGUs, and all positions for barangay personnel which are paid monthly honoraria.

However, those engaged without employer-employee relationship and funded from non-Personnel Services (PS) appropriations/budgets, for example those employees under an agency, shall be excluded from the coverage of the Circular.

Also excluded are the military and uniformed personnel, GOCCs under RA 10149, and individuals whose services are engaged through job orders, contracts of service, consultancy or service contracts with no employer-employee relationship.

Meanwhile, under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA), P48 million has been allocated under the Governance Commission for GOCCs’ (GCG) budget to support the conduct of a study on the government compensation structure of the different national government agencies and GOCCs.

Pangandaman said that “President Bongbong Marcos directed us to conduct a study to ensure that the compensation of all civilian personnel will be generally competitive with those in the private sector doing comparable work to attract, retain, and motivate corps of competent and dedicated civil servants,”

The DBM secretary assured that apart from the conduct of the study, the budget department is also undertaking a review of the rates of the existing benefits being provided to qualified government employees to assess if these may need adjustment in the future.