County staff pay beats civil servants, teachers

PHOTO | BD GRAPHIC 

By GEORGE OMONDI

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Summary

• On average, a county employee earned Sh67,372 per month in the year to December 2016, an increment of 144 per cent over an average of Sh27,611 per month earned by local authority workers in 2012. 
• By comparison, the Teachers Service Commission raised its salaries by 8.1 per cent last year to reach an average of Sh48,616 per month last year, up from Sh35,898 in 2012.

The average pay at counties is now bigger than that of teachers and national government, aided by higher annual salary rise over the past five years.

On average, a county employee earned Sh67,372 per month in the year to December 2016, an increment of 144 per cent over an average of Sh27,611 per month earned by local authority workers in 2012. 

The first crop of workers under the counties following the 2013 poll earned an average of Sh50,293 per month.

By comparison, the Teachers Service Commission raised its salaries by 8.1 per cent last year to reach an average of Sh48,616 per month last year, up from Sh35,898 in 2012.

National government workers have received marginal pay rise in recent years, raising their average pay to Sh44,028 per month last year, up from Sh33,216. “On average, county governments had the highest increase in wage earnings,” the Economic Survey 2017 states.

Official data indicates that the devolved units raised salaries 17.6 per cent in 2016 alone, narrowing the pay gap with workers of parastatals and State-controlled agencies.

Last year, parastatals and State agencies awarded an annual pay rise of 7.2 per cent on average. That pushed parastatal’s overage monthly pay to Sh74,422, representing a growth of 26.5 growth over the 2012 average of Sh58,809 per month.

Workers of the State agencies like National Bank, Consolidated Bank, Kenya Power and KenGen have, however, remained the star earners, taking home an average of Sh98,371 per month last year. That pay level represents a growth of 25.6 per cent over the 2012 earnings.

Apart from beating other entities in salary increases, the county governments have been on a hiring spree with official data indicating that they have added at least 81,200 more names in their payrolls.

The Economic Survey 2017 shows the number of county employees rose to 118,900 by end of 2016, a 215 per cent growth over the 37,700 workers it initially had in 2012.

Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo has consistently blamed counties for surpassing recommended expenditure levels on staff salaries and allowances.

In a recent report, Ms Odhiambo said county assemblies also spent Sh638 million on sitting allowances in the second quarter and Sh2.78 billion on domestic and foreign travel in the first quarter of the 2016/17.

Ms Odhiambo wants the devolved units to contain expenditure on personnel emoluments at sustainable levels outlined by the Treasury.