Approving cost of living adjustments for civil and public servants Loop Cayman Islands

Black Immigrant Daily News

If you read the recent publications of Cabinet meeting summaries, you will notice that Cabinet approved cost of living adjustments for certain government owned entities or public authorities. If you are asking why these entities can’t do so on their own, the answer is set out in the Public Authorities Act.

What the Public Authorities Act says

According to the Public Authorities Act, a public authority shall not award cost of living adjustment for staff of a public authority unless permitted to do so by the Cabinet.

In addition, no bonus or performance payment scheme may be introduced by the public authority unless the public authority is permitted to do so by the Cabinet.

What remains to be done

While civil servants and public servants appreciate these one-time cost of living adjustments or honorarium payments, for some, it is unclear whether they will ever catch up with rising inflation rates. This is especially the case for those civil servants and public servants in lower salary grades.

For example, if low salary earners in government are awarded a one-time, 2 per cent cost of living payment in one month, the question is how they will manage the cost of living that may continue to increase for the following 11 months (the below data from the Economics & Statistics Office shows that prices have steadily increased for the first half of 2022).

Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation (source: Economics & Statistics Office)

If finances are available, perhaps the current government may correct the imbalance created when a previous administration gave salary increases to the highest earning civil servants in salary grades A to D, but not those in lower brackets in salary grades E and below. This may give civil servants and public servants in lower brackets a chance to cope with the escalating cost of living rather than just simply trying to survive.

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