Report: Commission employees earn 7 times more than counterparts in private sector

Independent commissions have emerged as the best employers in Kenya, paying their average worker Sh220,000 a month, according to a new survey.

This is nearly seven-fold the average salary in the private sector.

Civil servants earn about a fifth of salaries paid to employees of the 10 commissions, shows a confidential study done by international audit firm Deloitte and presented to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

A breakdown of commission pay structures revealed striking income disparities, including at SRC itself, which could easily cause a major distortion in overall employee remuneration in the country’s public sector.

Among the reasons given for the gaping pay disparity is that commissions attract staff who are already widely experienced in either senior positions in Government or companies.

“We appreciate that there is a problem,” said Ali Chege, a spokesman for SRC, adding that remedial measures are anticipated through the ongoing job evaluation exercise.

Researchers reported in their findings that the average employee in the private sector earns less than teachers at only Sh33,825 a month, inclusive of allowances and before taxes.

In contrast, Deloitte found that workers in the public service earn a monthly salary of Sh49,067, which is padded by bloated allowances that are often more than the basic pay.

“Such income disparity translates to distortion of the pay structure and destabilises the labour market,” said Mr Chege.

He was however quick to add that the senior-most positions in the private sector compared well and often dwarfed the commissions and the public sector in general.

Attorney General Githu Muigai, for instance, is the best-paid Government employee at Sh2.66 million a month – more than President Uhuru Kenyatta.

But his pay pales against chief executives of top companies, including Safaricom’s Bob Collymore at Sh9 million a month, excluding share options and dividends.

Mr Collymore’s pay is, however, an outlier when compared to the broader private sector where a huge proportion earn close to or even below the minimum wage.

Pay cut

President Uhuru Kenyatta has already announced that representatives elected in the August polls will have to take a significant pay cut.

The revised salary scales, according to SRC, will be informed by the evaluation of different positions to determine the commensurate pay.

Among the measures that SRC hopes to take to tackle the pay disparity is a thorough review of the allowances paid to employees of commissions, the civil service and State corporations. There are hardly any allowances paid to private sector workers, outside of the basic pay against more than 70 classes for the various public sector institutions.