Some time ago, my brother-in-law told me about the circumstance involving one of his colleagues. The man lives in a rental house with a family of eight members to take care of. He does a job of 9 to 5 for which he gets 20,000 PKR.
In the current time where inflation is at its peak, continuously going upward, making the livelihood more expensive, this salary is not enough for one person, let alone a big family.
It’s not the story of one person. There are many skilled and educated individuals who are forced to sell their efforts for an income that doesn’t match their hard work. Nonetheless, they have to do it or someone else would take their place quickly.
In most of the jobs in private sector, the salaries do not equate the work. Even the minimum wage set by the government is of no concern to the private sector.
The high rate of unemployment and low rate of job availability have made it arduous for workers to raise voice against their low salaries. They don’t want to let the little out of their hands.
On the other hand, a different scenario is observed in government sector. The corruption and bribery has made it pretty easy to work less and get more. I have heard of cases quite near to me that the government employees only attend their offices for a few hours in a day while they get the full payment for it.
Another discrepancy that is observed in government and public sector is unequal allotment of resources. For instance, government employee get free fuel, electricity, water, gas and healthcare services. The higher the position an officer acquires, it is not just his/her salary that increases but also the allotment of resources increases.
This unequal allotment of resources causes great frustration to public. Where a common man belonging to lower and middle class is put in undue pressure of taxes and high bills, the government officials with quite handsome salaries are bestowed with free electricity and taxes exemptions.
The public doesn’t have quality health facilities (provided by government) while these highly paid government officers get free medical facilities. The public doesn’t only pay for other resources like water and gas but also has to suffer from their deprivation while high graded officers avail the facilities free of cost.
The point to consider is that if there is lack of resources in the country, why shouldn’t everyone pay for them equally? If a low wage person has to cut his pocket to fill the chests of government why a highly paid government official is not hold responsible to spend a small portion of his income on payment for the resources.
Had it been in my hands to allocate payments and resources to workers, the first thing I would do is to take all the privileges regarding resource usage back from everyone. Either the free consumption would be equal or none for everyone. Be it anyone, belonging to any service, any socio economic status and any sector, should be payable to the resources equally.
When it comes to the salaries allocation, paying equal wage to everyone doesn’t make sense to me. Some require more efforts than others. Moreover, a greater rank in the service requires more skills, efficiency and proficiency. Furthermore, some individuals doing the same tasks are more dedicated to their work as compared to their counterparts. All of these things are to be considered before deciding a pay scale.
Monetary achievement is one of the greatest sources for motivation in performance of any work. If everyone is given an equal income, people would find no reason to work harder and strive for betterment of family, organization and country. Moreover, it would be an injustice to the effortful people to give them a wage equal to a lazy person.
Nonetheless, it is crucial to provide every worker with an income and facilities that should be enough to fulfil basic needs of life. Getting more work for a lesser pay is injustice; and injustice leads to nothing but destruction.
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This post is my participation for Hive Learner’s featured contest prompt.
Image source edited by me on canva.com