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Minimum salary hike to benefit 122,000 citizens

by Rahul Das
February 04, 2013 , 10 : 11 pm | 1 comment

Muscat: The Public Authority for Social Insurance (PASI) has said that more than 122,000 registered employees will benefit from the government's decision to raise the minimum wage for Omanis working in the private sector from OMR200 to OMR325 per month.

Statistics from PASI reveal that close to 71 per cent of registered employees receive less than OMR300 per month. The average salary is OMR346 for men and OMR306 for women. Only 5.6 per cent of citizens receive a monthly salary of more than OMR800.
Although 67,950 registered employees received between OMR180 and OMR200, 53,384 employees received between OMR200 and OMR300. PASI has 171,901 registered employees, as of November 2012.

Statistics also show that 410,796 citizens were appointed in private-sector establishments during 2006�2011, and 205,284 of them (almost 50 per cent) had either resigned or were dismissed. Resignations continued in 2012 because of the desire amongst Omanis to work in the public sector.

It may be recalled that there was an increase in the income of private-sector employees from March 2011 after Ministerial Decision 77/2011 set the minimum wage for the national manpower in the private sector at OMR200 per month, with OMR180 as the basic salary and OMR20 as the allowance. Then, in 2012, the Manpower Ministry made it mandatory for employers in the private sector to provide an annual increment of three per cent of the basic salary to Omani employees from January 1 onwards, every year.

Until March 2011, some 48 per cent of the total private-sector workforce that was registered with PASI had been receiving between OMR160 and OMR180 per month. "However, after the ministerial decision that not a single employee registered with PASI should be paid less than OMR180 as a basic salary, the private sector kept its promise to raise salaries in March 2011," a senior official of PASI told Times of Oman.

This drastic change in the figures is a result of PASI's mandate to all private-sector employers to notify the authorities of the increase in employees' basic salaries. "This time, too, we will fine companies if they don't raise salaries by July 1, 2013," the official warned. According to a PASI official, of the total number of Omanis in the private sector, those who earn more than OMR500 per month account for only 12.3 per cent. Close to 50 per cent of the total private workforce falls into the 21�30 age group, and only 10 per cent of employees are above 40 years of age.

The authority receives contributions from all its registered employers and employees, or 'the insured,' in return for coverage against old age, disability, and death, as well as occupational diseases and work injuries. Contributions are made on monthly basis and are computed as a percentage of each staff's basic salary: 10.5 per cent comes from employer and 6.5 per cent comes from the insured.

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