CAIRO - Samir Radwan, the Minister of Finance, on Wednesday unveiled a plan to initial rise of a minimum wage level to LE700 for Egyptian in the public and private sectors after years of debate by officials during the reign of former President Hosni Mubarak. The planned minimum wage, which reaches LE1,200 in five years' time, will benefit public sector incremental staff and Egyptians working in the private sector, pensioners and those receiving government aid, the minister told a press conference. The new salary system, which will go into effect as of next month, has drawn mixed reactions. Radawan called the system, which also includes a wellfare programme for the unemployed Egyptians, a cost of living allowance and a measure to face the uncurbed increase in prices of consumer goods. Ahmed Chaker, a Cairo schoolteacher, was quick to dismiss the new wage system as "too small" and not enough to meet a steep hike in consumer prices, and demanded that the basic salary should stand at LE1,200 as approved by the Administrative Justice Court. "The basic salary system announced by Minister Radwan is very disappointing and too small... It will do nothing in the face of the excessive rise in prices of consumer goods," Chaker said, wondering how can a person live on a salary of LE700 while the rent of the humblest flat is LE500. Shaker said that he rejects this system because it is well below the people's expectations especially after the January 25 Revolution. "I urge Minister Radawan to review his system and raise the basic salary from LE700 to LE1,200 as ruled by the Administrative Court," he said. The average monthly salary of an average Egyptian employee is more than LE600. Over the past ten years, employees and workers have been pressing the governments of Atef Ebeid and Ahmed Nazif raise pay after the prices of basic goods soared dramatically in Egypt. However, accounting professor Hassan Eissa, the ex-dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Ain Shams University, welcomed Radwan Pay Plan, saying that a LE700 basic wage is a suitable one specially during the present difficult economic condition Egypt is passing through. Eissa said that the new plan, which would cost the State budget more than LE15 billion a year, need another parallel programme to go with it to make a success. "The Government should monitor and control market prices and adopt effective ways to reduce inflation rates," he said. Yomna Hamaqi, an economics professor at Ain Shams University, said that she had refused the principle of setting minimum basic wages, salaries and annual increments for Government and privates sector employees. Professor Hamaqi explains that she would accepted the Radwan plan only had it been compatible with the evaluations of each sector, or would correspond to minimum living standards. But, she said the move was an indication that the Sharaf Government was making good strides to increase minimum wages after many years of neglect under the previous regime.
