Public sector workers in the Greater Accra Region receive higher salaries than their counterparts in other regions, a report by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) dubbed Ghana 2022 earnings: Inequality in the public sector has revealed.

According to the GSS, while some public sector workers earn an average monthly net salary of GH₵3,142, others in the North East Region receive around GH₵2,212.

“Greater Accra has the highest average monthly net salary (GH₵3,142) with North East recording the lowest (GH₵2,212),” GSS said in the report.

GSS in the report also disclosed that men have a higher average monthly net salary of GH₵2,669 as against women’s salary of GH₵2,504.

“The difference between the average net salary of men and women is GH₵165. This means that the gender pay gap is 6.0 percent. Men have a higher average monthly net salary, of GH₵2,669, while women have an average of GH₵2,504. The average monthly net salary of women is lower than that of men in all 16 regions,” the report stated.

The GSS in its report added that women in the Central Region earn less than men with a gender pay gap of 5.0 percent.

“The difference is highest for employees in the Upper West region, with men earning on average GH₵348 more than women. This is a gender pay gap of 13 percent. In the Central Region the difference between men and women is the least, with women earning GH₵124 less than men. This means the gender pay gap of 5.0 percent,” the GSS stated in its report.

According to GSS, the average monthly salary for employees older than 60 years is much higher than that of any other age group.

“The average monthly salary for employees older than 60 years (GH₵14,466) is much higher than that of any other age group, almost five (4.7) times the average of 51 to 60 years, the group with the next highest average. For the age groups up to 41 to 50 years, the average monthly net salary increases by between GH₵300 and GH₵500 from one age group to the next, with an increase of around GH₵200 between 41 to 50 years and 51 to 60 years.,” GSS noted.

The report stressed that “the average monthly net salary of public sector employees is GH₵2,594. The highest paid earner takes home GH₵33,855, which is close to 81 times as high as the net salary of the lowest paid worker (GH₵418). The top 10 percent of the employees with the highest net salaries earn 22 percent of the total net salary. Half of the employees earn only one-third of the total net salary”.

Per the report from the GSS, the Government of Ghana employs about 688,000 persons, with over one-third (34.8%) of the employees in the Ashanti (18.2%) and Greater Accra (16.5%) regions.

The North East (1.4%) and Savannah regions (1.4%) hold only 2.8 percent of the total number of public sector employees.

Govt statistician speaks
Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Anim said a lot may need to be done to bridge the gap.

Speaking at the launch of a survey carried out on the salary structure of public sector workers, Professor Anim bemoaned the many inequalities in the structure.

“Take every five government employees, four out of that five are earning less than GH¢3,000. It’s important that as a country we should assess our situation. The worrying part is that inequality is more profound in the world”.

“The danger with that is if inheritance kicks in, it means that inequality will be transferred from one generation to another generation,” the Government Statistician noted.

-citinewsroom