The Executive Council (ExCo) said Monday it has finished discussing a government-drated bill on increasing the public servants – the city’s top earners – by 5.71 percent, as well as a by-law in which the government will top up the wages of all those residents earning less than 5,000 patacas a month to that amount, an increase of about 6.38 percent from the current 4,700 patacas monthly.
ExCo spokesman Leong Heng Teng made announces the hikes during a special press conference at Government House.
ExCo is the government’s top advisory body. All government-initiated bills and by-laws have to be presented to the council for discussion.
Leong said that after considering several factors such as the city’s inflation rate, the salary levels in the private sector and the government’s financial situation, the government had decided to increase its employees’ salaries by 5.71 percent. Each salary point will be raised from the current 70 to 74 patacas.
Government employees enjoyed an increase in each salary point from 66 patacas to the current 70 patacas last year.
According to official figures, there were 24,867 public servants -including the police – employed in September.
Official statistics show that public servants are the city’s top earners, according to The Macau Post Daily.
To become law, the bill has to be approved by the Legislative Assembly (AL). By-laws are enacted by the government without the legislature’s involvement.
Leong said that the salary increase for government employees was expected to be effective in May and would cost the public coffers an additional 550 million patacas.(macaunews)
