THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will commission a study by 2019 to benchmark the salaries of public-school teachers and other government employees.
Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno also reiterated that there will be no additional increases in the salary of public-school teachers this year.
Diokno said any increases in the salaries of government employees would be considered after the fourth and last tranche of compensation adjustment under the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) has been given in 2019.
“By 2019 [we’ll] commission a new study to benchmark the salaries of teachers and other personnel,” he told reporters in a news briefing in Manila on Wednesday.
The DBM will commission an independent firm to do a benchmarking on the salary of teachers and other government personnel, such as doctors, nurses and lawyers, by the first quarter of 2019.
Based on the results of the study, the DBM will propose the appropriate level of compensation for government workers.
He said public-school teachers will also get additional take-home pay due to the passage of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, on top of the third tranche of the SSL this year.
The SSL mandated the grant of pay hikes for government workers in four tranches. This year the third tranche will be implemented by the government, with the last tranche to be given in 2019.
“Let the SSL run its course, plus the combination of the TRAIN. We will evaluate where we are by January next year for possible budget proposal in 2020,” he added.
Under the 2018 General Appropriations Act (GAA), a budget of around P24 billion was allocated for the SSL for government employees, including public-school teachers.
“It’s a reasonable program and we are continuing it. We have done the first two and we will continue, if we are thinking of adjusting it now we cannot do it,” he said.
Diokno mentioned that he is “not opposed to the increasing the salaries of our teachers” but the government should complete the SSL first.
The combined effect of the increase in salary from the SSL and lowered tax rates due to the implementation of TRAIN will result in an additional take-home pay of P43,363 per year.
In 2019 annual tax savings will increase to P37,262 as it is indexed to salary, with the additional take home pay due to SSL and TRAIN increasing to P45,312.
The DBM estimated that doubling the salaries of teachers in 2018 will require an additional P343.7 billion in Personnel Services (PS) costs. In the 2018 GAA, the programmed PS costs for teaching positions is set at P381.1 billion. Doubling the salaries of teachers will require PS costs of about P724.8 billion, implying a financing requirement of P343.7 billion.
The budget chief cited that the budgetary impact as the reason behind previous statements in which he cautioned against the doubling of teachers’ salaries.
He clarified that the President’s instruction is “to look into increasing their salaries, not doubling them.”
“We have to ensure that our public-sector deficit remains manageable. Financing this P343.7 billion may require hiking the deficit from 3 percent of GDP to 5 percent of GDP, and it may put at risk the excellent international financial standing the Duterte administration has built over the past 18 months,” Diokno added.