Single Spine Pay Structure in Ghana

Single spine pay structure simply means having a single pay plan whereby employees in the same pay scale are paid equally. The new public sector pay policy came into effect from 1st July, 2010 as a unified salary structure that places all public sector employees on one vertical structure with incremental pay points from the lowest to the highest level. The aim of the pay policy is to attract, retain and motivate public service workers to enhance effectiveness in service delivery and improved productivity. The salary structure ensures that jobs within the same value range were paid within the same pay range, adding that, placement of the single spine salary structure would be done on the basis of grade structure constructed from the job evaluation exercise. This new and improved pay structure came about as a result of consultation between government, Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the unions.
The rationale for the single spine salary structure is to remove inequities and distortions in public service pay administration in order to achieve ‘‘equal pay for work of equal worth’’ as enshrined in Article 24(1) of the 1992 constitution of Ghana, section 10(b) of the labor Act, 2003(Act 651).
Incremental implementation of the new pay policy started in July 1st, 2010 as stated above and by September 2011, about 69%(44 institutions) of the 520,000 public sector employees have been migrated onto the salary structure. Currently about 98% of all public service employees have been placed on the salary structure according to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.
The single spine salary structure has got both positive and negative implications on the Ghanaian economy. Some of the positive implications include: * Improvement in the economic welfare of the citizens. The implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure has led to an increase in the wages and salaries of public sector workers enhancing their purchasing power, accessibility to proper health care,