From July 1, the average salary of officials, civil servants and public employees will increase by about 30%.

From July 1, salary policy reform will be implemented according to Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW of the 7th Central Conference (term XII).

Speaking to reporters, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that the average salary of officials, civil servants and public employees is expected to increase by about 30%, a significant increase compared to the average annual increase of 7% before salary reform.

Salaries of education and health officials increased higher than the average.

- After a period of delay in salary reform, from July 1, the new salary policy will be implemented. Millions of officials, civil servants, public employees and workers are looking forward to this moment. How will their salaries be increased, Minister?

-This is one of the biggest tasks of the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2024. When it comes to salary reform, the first thing that comes to mind is a salary increase. This is also what I myself and millions of cadres, civil servants and public employees are looking forward to.

According to the salary reform plan, from July 1, the average salary of officials, civil servants and public employees is expected to increase by about 30% (including basic salary and allowances).

From 2025, this salary will continue to be adjusted to increase by an average of about 7% per year.

Although we have not implemented salary reform in the past 3 years, we have adjusted the basic salary twice, increasing it by 29.5%. Thus, calculating the total from 2021 (the expected time to implement salary reform in the spirit of Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW) to July 1, the average salary of officials, civil servants and public employees has also increased quite a lot, about 60%. Although this figure is not outstanding, it is still a significant increase compared to the average annual increase of 7% before salary reform.

This demonstrates the great efforts of the Government, as well as the Ministry of Home Affairs and other ministries and branches in implementing salary policy reform according to Resolution 27 of the 12th Central Committee; especially in the context of limited budget and economic difficulties after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

- Could you please tell us, according to the upcoming salary reform plan, how will the salaries of officials, civil servants, and public employees in various fields change, especially in the education and health sectors where there are many proposals to increase salaries higher than the general level?

-A notable point when implementing salary reform is that the salary of civil servants, especially education and health officials, will be higher than the average salary of other civil servants and public employees, because we are reforming salary policy in conjunction with the implementation of the resolution on fundamental and comprehensive development of education, training, and health. Especially through the recent COVID-19 pandemic, it shows that we need to pay more attention to improving the lives of teachers and doctors.

Therefore, when reforming salaries, we will coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Health to request competent authorities to pay attention to adjusting support to ensure that salaries (including allowances) of teachers and doctors are increased in accordance with their requirements and job positions, both ensuring the general salary level of cadres, civil servants and public employees, and showing preferential treatment for these two sectors.

Consider reserving salary and income in specific units

- Can the Minister provide more information about salaries for officials, civil servants and public employees at specific units?

-According to Resolution 27, we will soon abolish the mechanisms and policies on salaries and special incomes. Currently, there are 134,284 cadres and civil servants in state administrative agencies and units applying special financial and income mechanisms (with additional salaries in addition to the general regime from 0.66 times to 2.43 times). This number accounts for about 6.78% of the total payroll of cadres, civil servants and public employees nationwide.

When abolishing the mechanisms and policies on salary and special income, they will receive new salaries (including allowances) that may be lower than before the salary reform. Therefore, to ensure their regime, we calculate to advise the competent authority to consider reserving the current salary and special income.

That is, the new salary (including retained salary) of these cadres, civil servants and public employees is not lower than before salary reform was implemented in accordance with the spirit of Resolution No. 27, ensuring fairness between salary recipients before and after salary reform.

I also hope that the staff, civil servants and public employees in specific units will share the Party's general policy to effectively implement salary reform.

- To implement salary reform, one of the heavy tasks in 2024 that the Government assigned to the Ministry of Home Affairs is to complete the job position by next March. Is this a pressure and what has the ministry prepared to overcome this pressure?

-The Ministry of Home Affairs has coordinated with the Central Organizing Committee (the agency in charge of advising on job positions in the political system), ministries, branches and localities to promptly guide and adjust related policies, trying to complete before March 31 to promptly develop a salary payment plan and apply the new salary policy from July 1.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is coordinating with agencies, administrative organizations and public service units to build and perfect the job position system "as a fundamental solution with a premise for implementing salary policy reform." This is a heavy and most stressful task when implementing salary reform, but the Ministry of Home Affairs will work with ministries, branches and localities to complete it on schedule assigned by the Government.

10% of basic salary for bonus

- What are the next steps to implement salary reform on July 1, Minister?

-The Politburo will review and approve policies and principles on the basic contents of the new wage policy of the entire political system to serve as a basis for competent authorities to issue documents on the wage regime of cadres, civil servants, public employees and armed forces from the central to communal levels, effective from July 1 this year. The Ministry of Home Affairs is actively advising on the development of a decree on the new wage regime for subjects under the Government's authority.

In addition, we coordinated with the Central Organizing Committee to submit to the Secretariat a decision on the new salary regime for Party agencies, the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations; coordinated with the Delegation Work Committee to submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee a resolution on the new salary regime for subjects under the management authority of the National Assembly Standing Committee.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is consulting with competent authorities to build a salary system including basic salary accounting for 70% and allowances accounting for 30% of the total salary fund.

In addition, there is an additional 10% of the basic salary fund for the head of the agency or unit to reward. At the same time, the head has the right to issue a mechanism to use the regular budget to hire experts, attract and promote talented people in the public sector.

The Ministry of Home Affairs will coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to issue an institutional system as a basis for ministries, branches and localities to use this budget source to attract and employ talented people in the public sector.

- Thank you very much, Minister!