Real Wages of the Federal Government Employees: Trends from 1977-78 to 1991-92

This paper examines the trends in aggregate emoluments of the Federal Government Employees over the period 1977-78 to 1991-92. Levels of salary and allowances are very important factors in attracting and retaining good-quality human resources in any sector of employment in an economy because they have a direct bearing on the motivation and performance of the employees. In Pakistan, despite tbe fact that government is still the largest employer. the real wages of the government servants have continuously declined over time; the top five grades are the worst-affected. Despite periodic revision of salaries, the successive pay commissions have failed to acknowledge some very obvious anomalies in the basic pay and allowances structures. These anomalies not only harm the interests of the employees, their cost to the national exchequer is also quite significant. The paper aims to provide greater awareness of the weaknesses of the existing salary structures so that they can be reformed. It makes strong recommendations on the revision of the existing patterns of renumeration, to the advantage of both the employer and the employee.