Comparison of Salaries at Primary School X Following the Implementation of the New Pay System and the Impact of the Minimum Wage on Group J

Every employee deserves decent pay for their work, that is, pay that enables them to live a decent life, regardless of what kind of work they do. In any case, the pay for the lowest pay grade in the public sector should enable an individual to survive for one month. Some imbalances between salaries have still not been eliminated, even though all four quarters of the elimination of imbalances for the public sector have been implemented. It was found that disparities increased for a particular group, even though the change stated that they would be reduced, and in some cases eliminated. Thus, they determined what advantages and disadvantages the change in the pay system brought to employees in individual pay groups and between them.

Problem

Every employee deserves decent pay for their work, that is, pay that enables them to live a decent life, regardless of what kind of work they do. In any case, the pay for the lowest pay grade in the public sector should enable an individual to survive for one month. Research into pay grades at Primary School X has shown that there are differences between the pay grades of technical and professional staff, even though some have completed the same level of education.

Therefore, a decision was made to investigate the reasons why this happened. It was found that changes occurred with the implementation of the new pay system in the public sector in 2008, when transfers to pay grades took place.

Solution and Method

Some imbalances between salaries have still not been eliminated, even though all four quarters of the elimination of imbalances for the public sector have been implemented. However, some salaries and pay grades have increased and some promotions that had been frozen have been released. Two segments of employees were analysed, namely professional staff (teachers and educators) and technical staff (accountants, business secretaries, caretakers, cooks and cleaners).

For each group, they analysed separately why discrepancies arose in the pay system. First, they focused on the transfer of pay from the old to the new pay system and what this meant for the employee. Then, how an individual employee was classified into a pay grade and group, and what conditions were required.

Results

It was found that disparities increased for a particular group, even though the change stated that they would be reduced, and in some cases eliminated. Thus, they determined what advantages and disadvantages the change in the pay system brought to employees in individual pay groups and between them. They reviewed how pay grades have changed to date and how many pay grades employees have gained in each group.

They also reviewed how the minimum wage affected employees in Group J. They focused primarily on cleaners and other employees, as with promotion they barely reach the minimum wage. They checked by what percentage the minimum wage has changed from 2008 to the present day, and how many times a change has occurred in the minimum wage law.