Why CAS will earn more than doctors - SRC Chair Lyn Mengich

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) Chairperson Lyn Mengich has revealed how salary packages are remunerated across different job groups in the country.

Mengich, who spoke on Citizen TV's 'The Explainer' show on Tuesday, divulged that a person’s education qualification or technical experience may not be the ultimate determiner of how high or low their monthly salary is.

According to the SRC boss, there are many factors of consideration to place individuals in different pay categories, among them input factors, processes and the impact of the job.

Mengich was responding to a query by a viewer who wondered why Cabinet Administrative Secretaries (CAS), who are yet to be appointed, will have a fat paycheck compared to the striking doctors in the country despite the latter’s job requiring much higher qualifications and technicalities.

“When we advise on salaries, there are many factors we look at and not just education. Education is one of the factors we look at…When we evaluate a job, we categorise the factors that we consider as input factors, processes and impact,” she explained.

The SRC Chair underscored that despite education and experience which fall in the first cluster of input factors, being vital in job enrolment, their weight in terms of remuneration is less than the processes and impact.

She says the process factors which are the task done and the impact factors which show the significance of the role either internationally or nationally, majorly determine how much an employee takes home.

"Input factors are where education and experience come in because that is what you bring into the job. The process is the actual work that you do; what we call the process factors including complexity of the job, decision making, problem-solving,” Mengich stated.

“Impact is what you do; it could be at certain levels such as international, national, it speaks to the impact then how significant is that impact.”

The commissioner further avers that as a person continues to study and their education, it’s not a direct ticket for more wages since the focus will still be on the process and the impact of the job at hand.

“The higher you go the less the input factors in terms of its weight because at that point, what is required is more of the impact of the role and the process. So at that point, the input factor is still important but it does not carry as much weight,” noted Mengich.

“That is why someone may say this and this job has similar training so why is this one higher.”