Private sector struggles to match Govt salaries

The Government says it is satisfied with the current salaries of civil servants, revealing that even the lowest-paid worker now earns above the Poverty Datum Line - a development officials say has unsettled some private sector employers who are struggling to match public sector pay.

Responding to a question from Matabeleland North senator Teresa Kabondo in Parliament, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Deputy Minister Kudakwashe Mnangagwa said salary reviews for civil servants would continue to be handled through established negotiation platforms involving Government, employers and workers.

Mnangagwa acknowledged that it had been some time since the last salary adjustment but said relative economic stability over the past year and a half had reduced the urgency for frequent cost-of-living reviews.

He explained that the current pay structure ensures that even the lowest-paid Government employee earns above the poverty threshold.

"Just to give some context around the architecture of the lowest-paid civil servant, you will find that it is US$320 and a ZiG equivalent of about US$40 or US$60. I will have to check those numbers," he said.

"This puts all our civil servants from the lowest paid — the cleaner — to the highest paid, above the poverty datum line. This is something we have strived over and over to achieve."

The Poverty Datum Line represents the minimum income required for an individual or household to meet basic needs such as food, housing, healthcare, education and other essentials. According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat), the Total Consumption Poverty Line for one person stood at ZiG1 260.52 per month as of March 2025.

Mnangagwa added that salary negotiations would continue to involve multiple stakeholders to avoid distorting the broader labour market.

He claimed that Government's relatively competitive pay had become a source of concern among private sector employers.

"I will say that the private sector has actually been at the forefront of complaining that the Government is moving a bit too fast in increasing salaries," he said.

"It might come as a surprise, but Government does pay better than the private sector at this current moment."

Meanwhile, during debate on the 2026 National Budget in December last year, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube indicated that Treasury was planning another round of salary adjustments for civil servants.

Members of Parliament had urged Government to allocate more funding to social programmes such as the Basic Education Assistance Module and other social services, suggesting that the resources could be drawn from the budget's Unallocated Reserves.

However, Ncube warned that the contingency funds were limited and would quickly be depleted by existing obligations, including civil service salary adjustments linked to the Government's job evaluation exercise.

"I would really like to persuade our colleagues. We have a limited purse . . . we seem to have a large Unallocated Reserve. I can assure you it is not large at all," he said.

"One issue is the budget for salary adjustments for civil servants in the first quarter. It is going to happen, and it is based on the job evaluation exercise. It will eat away quite a lot of that Unallocated Reserve. It will not go far."