Rasbin Mohammed Al-Fouzan Al-Riyadh Whenever the issue of salary increases crops up, we immediately jump to comparisons with other neighboring GCC countries. Income increases should not be dependent on salary rises. There should be an economic balance between the incomes of the people, the rate of economic growth, inflation and other economic factors before any salary increase is decided. In some neighboring GCC countries wages were blindly doubled or increased at least by 50 percent, but is the level of prices the same here and there? Of course not. An example of this is house rent levels. In Dubai, the annual rent of a good apartment is between SR60,000 and SR80,000, while in our country it is between SR30,000 and SR35,000. Our fuel prices are the cheapest in the region. Citing these two examples, I do not want to say that we are the best compared to other countries in the region but for comparison's sake we have to talk about an apple against a similar apple elsewhere. The salary increase will raise the cost of manpower, ultimately resulting in a rise of commodity prices. It is imperative that we increase the low salaries, which are not enough to sustain families let alone save something for the future. Anyone who cannot save some portion of his salary deserves a salary increase. But rather than increasing wages, we should improve and reduce the costs of education, health, electricity, water and other services. When we provide a citizen with accommodation we will be enabling him to save about 35 percent of his income. When the services are improved and the accommodation provided, the personal incomes will increase by about 50 percent. An increase in wages will mostly benefit people with fat salaries, not those receiving peanuts. An increase of 10 percent will be beneficial to those who are paid monthly salaries of SR10,000, not SR3,000. So we should focus on people with lower incomes. The salary rise should be made after specialized economic studies to avoid burdening the government in the future. The salary rise should be recommended based on specialized economic studies, not on compassionate whims. Income will automatically increase when inflation is controlled and services are provided. Among others, these services include accommodation, education, health and others. Increasing basic salaries will only open the door for uncontrollable price hikes.
