Parastatal salaries beat private sector

Workers in profit-driven State-owned firms are on average the best paid employees in Kenya, beating their counterparts in parastatals, counties, ministries and even private firms.

The Economic Survey 2019 shows employees in firms majority-controlled by the government such as Kenya Power, Kenya Re and KenGen pocketed an average pay of Sh1,282,282.40 in 2018, translating to a monthly average of Sh106,856.87.

Their monthly pay was Sh46,273.42 higher than average salary paid to Kenyan workers last year at Sh60,583.45, the survey showed.

The data shows pay scale for the state-controlled firms, which have financial muscle to compete with private ones for talent, has remained top, despite average pay for workers in these companies falling 0.12 percent last year.

Workers in parastatals — firms fully owned by the government — are the second highest paid with average monthly income of Sh80,834.96, which was 16.66 percent higher than Sh69,293.03 in 2017.

The pay raise for parastatal staff last year followed a 6.89 percent drop in 2017 from Sh74,422.01 average monthly income per worker in 2016.

Employees in firms without government shareholding, mostly those listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), came in third in the pay ranking with average package of Sh60,951.35 in 2018, reflecting a 7.64 percent rise over Sh56,624.10 a year earlier.

A county worker, on the other hand, pocketed an average monthly pay of Sh58,901.47 in 2018, an increment of 8.54 percent compared with Sh54,264.89 they earned year before, the data indicate.

County workers earned better pay than staff in ministries whose monthly pay during the year averaged Sh48,879.29, the lowest in the public sector after a 7.34 percent raise from Sh45,535.71 in 2017.

Average monthly pay for teachers in public schools was slightly more at Sh53,730.42 after rising 7.95 percent from Sh49,773.53 the year before.

Overall, monthly average earnings per worker in the public sector stood at Sh59,744.56, a growth of 7.61 percent over Sh55,520.09 in 2017.