Salaries of Public Employees Increased up to $ 600

Since Rafael Correa assumed presidency, one of his primary goals was to equate salaries in the public sector, which is why he reduced his salary by 50% (from $ 8,000 to $ 4,000).

According to the scale of the Ministry of Labour Relations, which annually adjusts public workers’ salaries through a ministerial agreement, Correa earned the equivalent of a base salary multiplied by 25, which means that if the base salary for this year is $ 264, this value multiplied by 25 results in $ 6,600, which represents an increase of 65% since 2007.

The Secretary of State issued the 2011-000020 ministerial agreement–applied since January 1st, 2011–which sets the annual adjustment of salaries of the President and Vice President as well as of other officers and officials who are in higher hierarchical level positions. These salaries were increased up to $ 600. But the scales of executive positions earning less than $3,500 were left intact.

According to former Finance Minister Fausto Ortiz, no public official can earn more than the President,; however, an officer can earn fifteen basic salaries more than the president according to his/her work.

“Bottom line is that the mass of the public sector is high, because the salaries account represent 12% of gross domestic product (GDP),” said Jaime Carrera, director of the Fiscal Observatory, who believes that wages remain high and are not generating savings for the state.

“In 2006, 3,500 million dollars were invested to pay salaries, and in 2011 this value increases to $7,000 million, and it is paid with the collection of the Value Added Tax (VAT) and Income Tax (IR) but this two amounts are enough to cover this expense,” he added.

According to figures from Carrera, in these four years a salary increase of one hundred thousand employees in the public sector was registered, taking into account that this government started with an average of 454 thousand workers.

Source: El Universo