Iraq salary scale review reaches advanced stage, commission chief says

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's commission tasked with overhauling the public salary scale has prepared multiple scenarios aimed at restoring balance between wages and allowances, Deputy Planning Minister Hena al-Asadi, who chairs the commission, told the Official Gazette. She said the first phase, building a comprehensive database, is about 70 percent complete, and that the commission has held several rounds of meetings to review proposals. One main proposal under consideration would raise nominal salaries while reducing allowances, a step the commission described as designed to ensure fairness among civil servants. A separate scenario requires spending units across all ministries, including the three presidencies, to submit detailed salary data; al-Asadi said cooperation from those units has reached around 80 percent. The scenarios are due to be discussed at an upcoming commission meeting. Al-Asadi added that completing the civil-service employee numbering project is a prerequisite for resolving the issue of dual salaries. Economist Ali Abdulqadir Dadush said the unification of the salary scale is not intended to deliver across-the-board raises, but to correct distortions and bring pay closer together for employees performing similar work. Dadush also said performance-based incentives could be applied at profitable self-financing state companies, while loss-making entities should not retain privileges without restructuring.