Egypt’s president orders raising minimum wage to LE 2,400, raising pensions by 13%

CAIRO – 15 March 2021: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ordered increasing the minimum wage to LE 2,400 a month from LE 2,000 for state employees and also raising the pensions by 13 percent.

The decisions came as Sisi met with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli and Minister of Finance Mohamed Maeet to review the budget of the new fiscal year 2021-2022.

The wage increases for the employees working at the administrative body of the state will cost the state around LE 37 billion in total and the pensions increase will cost the state around LE 31 billion, a presidential statement read.

The president also approved two allowances at a cost of around LE 7.5 billion; a periodic allowance for employees engaged in the civil service law at a rate of 7% of the wage, and the second is a bonus for workers not addressed by the civil service law at a rate of 13% of the basic salary.

Sisi ordered increasing incentives for those addressed and non-addressed by the civil service law at a total cost of LE 17 billion.

The decisions also include allocating LE 1.5 billion as incentives for employees relocating their workplace to the New Administrative Capital.

The new budget aims to decrease total deficit to around 6.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and achieve a primary surplus estimated at 1.5 percent of the GDP.

The new budget allocates LE 2.1 billion to cover the funding of the first year of the national project to replace rickety cars with others working with natural gas. This phase targets 70,000 vehicles.