Finance Ministry Director-General Shai Babad
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Ministry directors-general want a raise of their own
After ministers get hefty pay raise, Finance Ministry director-general works on NIS 4,000 salary increase plan for himself and his peers.
After ministers and deputy ministers received a hefty raise
earlier this week, directors-general in government ministries might get a NIS 4,000 raise of their own.
The salaries for ministers and directors-general were the same until 2001, when they were both linked to the consumer price index.
While the ministers' salary was only affected when the consumer price index rose, but not when it fell, directors-general were affected either way, and so not only has their salary not increased, it went down by some NIS 1,000.
Finance Ministry Director-General Shai Babad (Photo: Tal Shimony)
In June 2017, it was decided to link the directors-general's salary to the consumer price index only when it increases, thus comparing their conditions to those ministers receive.
But after the Knesset's Finance Committee voted on Monday to increase the salary of government members, several directors-general have turned to Finance Ministry Director-General Shai Babad and asked for a raise as well.
And so Babad is now working on a proposal to give directors-general an immediate raise of a little over NIS 4,000, bringing their monthly salary up from NIS 38,490 to NIS 42,556 (gross income).
The proposal also raises the option of linking directors-general's salary to the average wage, which increases by thousands of shekels annually.
The overall cost of adopting the proposal is estimated at NIS 4.4 million a year.
Furthermore, the changes might also apply to "any state employee whose employment conditions are the same as those of a director general in a government ministry." In such a case, the proposal's implementation would cost some NIS 7.6 million a year.
It is important to note, however, that the net income for a government ministry's director-general currently stands at some NIS 18,000, and if the raise is approved, it would stand at NIS 20,000. While they are considered the significant driving force behind the work of government ministries, they make considerably less than their counterparts in the private sector.
The Finance Ministry said the plan is still being prepared and under discussions and will not be brought to the government in its upcoming meeting.
