DBM: Last tranche of gov’t workers’ salary hike in effect starting January 2023

Government employees may expect to receive higher salaries as the last tranche of the mandated salary increases for state workers took effect on January 1, 2023, the Department of Budget and Management has said.

In a statement, the DBM said the fourth tranche of wage increase was the last phase of the pay hike mandated by the Republic Act (RA) 11466 or the Salary Standardization Law of 2019 (SSL V).

The first tranche of SSL V took effect on January 1, 2020.

The RA 11466 covers all positions for civilian personnel, whether regular, casual, or contractual, appointive or elective, full-time or part-time, now existing or thereafter created in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches; constitutional commissions and other constitutional offices; state universities and colleges (SUCs); as well government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) not covered by RA 10149 or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011.

The SSL V applies to all positions for salaried LGU personnel, whether regular, contractual, casual, elective, or appointive; on a full-time or part-time basis, now existing or thereafter created in LGUs, and all positions for barangay personnel that are paid monthly honoraria.

Those engaged without an employer-employee relationship and funded from non-Personnel Services (PS) appropriations/budgets shall be excluded.

Also excluded are the military and uniformed personnel, GOCCs under RA 10149, and individuals whose services are engaged through job orders, contracts of service, consultancy, or service contracts with no employer-employee relationship, according to the DBM.

“The government recognizes the indispensable role of its dedicated personnel in serving our beloved country. We are firmly committed to help them amidst rising prices of goods and services. We hope this latest salary increase will cushion the impact of inflation,” Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said.

The DBM said Pangandaman signed two budget circulars for the implementation of the SSL V, which cover civilian personnel and local government unit (LGU) workers.

The Budget department said that under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA), around P48 million has been allocated under the Governance Commission for GOCCs’ (GCG) budget to support the conduct of a study on the government compensation structure of the different national government agencies and GOCCs.

“President Bongbong Marcos directed us to conduct a study to ensure that the compensation of all civilian personnel will be generally competitive with those in the private sector doing comparable work to attract, retain, and motivate corps of competent and dedicated civil servants,” said Pangandaman.

“Apart from the conduct of the study, the DBM is also undertaking a review of the rates of the existing benefits being provided to qualified government employees to assess if these may need adjustment in the future,” she added. —NB, GMA Integrated News