Saudi Gazette report RIYADH – The Shoura Council approved on Monday a decision to form a special committee to study a proposal to increase the salary structure grades and service ranks for government employees, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Many government employees, who are hired on temporary contracts, stay in the same position for a long time without any increment. The advocates of the proposal to increase the salary structure grades and service ranks said the government employees will benefit from the annual salary raise while waiting for promotion to the next rank. But the Committee of Management and Human Resources at the Shoura Council spoke against the proposal, saying it will have negative impact on employees' performance. Many employees will opt not to develop their skills and will choose to stay in the same rank, knowing well that they will get the annual raise anyhow. After deliberations, the Shoura Council decide to form a committee to study the proposal and submit a detailed report. In July, a massive Twitter campaign was launched by Saudis demanding increase in salaries. The campaign said that the cost of living has risen and that the Saudis needed a new raise to keep up with the expenses. The first two weeks of the campaign counted 17 million of support messages. The impact of the price hike was made evident in a comparative study comparing prices in 1982 with 2011. The price of renting a three-bedroom house has increased by 1000 percent from SR2,500 a year in 1982 to SR25,000 in 2011. The price of a 10-kilo bag of sugar increased by 550 percent from SR5 in 1982 to SR44 in 2011. The price of a goat increased by 550 percent from SR400 in 1982 to SR2,300 in 2011. The study went on to compare prices of many other commodities and the conclusion it arrived at was the average percentage of price increase from 1982 to 2011 is 765 percent, while the difference in salaries from 1982 to 2011 is 66 percent. A clear indication that salary hikes have not kept pace with the price hikes. Last year Minister of Labor Adel Fakieh admitted that the salaries of the majority of Saudis appointed under the Nitaqat program were low. In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Fakieh attributed the low salary to the fact that only 5 percent of Saudis registered in the Hafiz program hold university degrees. He said modalities were being worked out to fix the minimum salaries for Saudis in the Nitaqat program. The minister said that the labor market receives more than 300,000 Saudi citizens annually.
