Civil servants and public sector employment Nick Manning May 2001
Overview What is special about civil servants? The scope of civil service laws Who are civil servants? How are they rewarded? How many are there and how much do they cost? When do pay and employment need to be reformed?
What is special about civil servants? appointed rather than simply hired constraints on dismissal constrained in their actions within civilian central government or subnational government
The scope of civil service laws
Who are civil servants?
How are they rewarded? personal emoluments total compensation
Keep in mind in OECD base pay is rarely below 90% of personal emoluments allowances in developing countries can be very high allowances not always easily traceable in the budget intangible benefits can be significant
Allowances can lead to significant wage distortions
How many are there and how much do they cost?
When do pay and employment need to be reformed? no hard and fast metrics! public sector wage bill as % of GDP or as % of total public sector spending govt. employees as % of total population or as % of total employment average wages compared to per capita GDP recruitment growth rate