While many people have been calling for increasing the minimum wage to LE600 ($112) per month, some fortunate civil servants (public- not private-sector workers) are earning LE1 million (about $187,000) monthly,

according to one MP. Meanwhile, Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali has denied that the head of the Tax Authority earns a humungous salary like that, although he declined to divulge his actual wage. The whole wages system in Egypt is widely perceived to be defective, because of the bonuses and allowances that account for 75 per cent of the average salary. Such bonuses and allowances vary from sector to sector, but they are best for workers in the public-enterprises sector and the Ministries of Foreign, Tourism and Oil. Those civil servants who earn the least work in ministries like Waqfs (religious endowments), Social Security and Agriculture. They more than anyone else need a higher minimum wage and better allowances. In any case, the whole salaries system needs overhauling. "There is no planned wages policy," says professor of economy Samir Radwan, who conducted a study into wages policies in Egypt and concluded that they were unjust. Another failing is that promotion is based on length of service not on competency. The study also showed that the average monthly wage for those working in the public-enterprises sector was LE7,156 (nearly $1,340) per month, while their counterparts in the Ministry of Waqfs, for example, were only earning a measly LE235, about 30 times less. Radwan pinpoints two main problems in the wages policy. Firstly, income only represents a small percentage of salaries, which are bumped up by bonuses and allowances, which only happens in Egypt. Secondly, inflation should be taken into account. Ali Lotfi, an ex-Egyptian Prime Minister, agrees that there are obvious defects in the system, noting that the basic salaries in the State budget come to LE15 billion ($2.8 billion), while the bonuses and other rewards exceed LE25 billion ($4.7 billion). "Basic salaries are associated with laws, while bonuses and rewards are defined according to each authority separately. For example, one governmental authority might give a bonus of 400 per cent, while another one offers a bonus of 50 per cent. Clearly the gap should be closed," stresses Lotfi. Another defect is that the senior members of department always get the lion's share of the bonuses. This means the head of a governmental authority earns perhaps 30 times more than a 'rookie' civil servant.