FactCheck: Will Government Wages for Lowest Grade Increase to a Minimum D6K in 2025?
Finance Minister speaks to the press after 2025 Budget Speech (Photo © Askanwi)
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
On the same week of the 2025 Budget Speech, two of the highest-profile officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) have announced that the lowest wage (take home) of civil servants will increase to a minimum of D6,000 for the lowest Grade 1.1 from January 2025.
Watch the video from 21 minutes to 23 minutes.
Claim: Speaking to QTV on the State of Affairs Program on 10th December 2024, Finance Minister, Hon Seedy S Keita, highlighted that “no government employee come 2025 will have a wage, net take-home pay of less than D6,000.”
Speaking at the Minister for Communications, Media, and Broadcasting Services last press conference of the year on the same day, MoFEA Permanent Secretary Baboucarr Jobe revealed that “we do not expect anyone who’s in the Civil Service, Point 1, that’s the lowest Grade 1.1 to be earning anything less than D6,000. So, you will not have anyone earning less than D6,000 come 2025.”
Source: 2025 Budget Speech MoFEA
FactCheck: The Minister of Finance issued the “New Integrated Pay Scale of the Civil Service” in Annex 7 of his 2025 Budget Speech on 13th December 2024, as detailed above. This shows that the basic salaries of the lowest Grade 1.1 will increase from D1,612 to D2,870 in 2025.
In addition, finance minister Hon. Seedy Keita told Parliamentarians during his 2025 Budget Speech that “the transport and house rent allowances will be increased from D1,500 to D3,000 and from D1,700 to D3,500, respectively. These increases in allowances will apply to grades 1–8 under the integrated pay scale of the civil service.”
Our reporter managed to verify the wages with a senior official from the MoFEA, who provided clarifications that a Grade 1.1 is currently receiving a wage that includes “Special Incentive Allowance and Transportation Allowance” of D3,812 as shown in the table below. The new wages for 2025 are shown below for Grade 1.1, totalling D7,370.
Take Home
Our clarification highlights that D7,370 is the gross income with no tax deductions (as their basic salary is below the new tax threshold of D3,001). However, the individual will have a compulsory deduction of 5% on the gross amount of D7,370 as a contribution towards his pension.
This means that for a Grade 1.1, their take-home (or what will be sent to his bank account) will therefore be D7,370 minus D368.6 = D7,001.50.
However, all this has come at a cost, as the finance minister noted that “the projected increase in Personnel Emolument expenditures from the approved figure of D7.4 billion for 2024 to D8.8 billion in 2025 is largely driven by the projected D1.4 billion impact from the proposed increase in salaries and the increase of transport and residential allowances.”
Finance Minister delivers 2025 Budget Speech in Parliament (Photo © Askanwi)
Verdict: For the lowest Grade 1.1 civil servant paid a Basic Salary, Special Incentive Allowance, and Transportation Allowance, their take-home will be D7,001.50, which represents a 93% increase from 2024 to 2025.
The Finance Minister’s statement that “no government employee come 2025 will have a wage, net take-home pay of less than D6,000” is TRUE.
This FactCheck was first published by FactCheckGambia.org in the link: https://factcheckgambia.org/fact-check-will-government-wages-for-lowest-grade-increase-to-d6k-in-2025/
