An "Open Letter" on Public Sector Salaries and the Six Multipliers... Here Are the Details

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18 May 2026

09:35 AM

An "Open Letter" on Public Sector Salaries and the Six Multipliers... Here Are the Details

Antoine Gebran, head of the National Council of Former State Employees and coordinator of the Public Sector Leagues Gathering, addressed an open letter "to public opinion and to the officials concerned regarding public sector salaries and the six multipliers," which stated:

"In dozens of letters and statements it has issued, the public sector leagues have consistently laid out their suffering and demands for improving salaries, wages, and pensions, with the aim of reaching a new salary scale. As a result of the movements on the ground and after a series of reviews, the government promised to improve salaries gradually, starting from the first months of 2026, so that they would become 30 times their current level (that is, half of what they were in 2019 in US dollars), with the remaining half to be paid in five installments at a rate of six times every six months. To achieve this goal and move the matter from the theoretical level to the practical one, the Public Sector Leagues Gathering (military and civilian) took the initiative to prepare a comprehensive draft law, which it submitted to His Excellency the President of the Republic on 23/12/2025, along with its explanatory memorandum and a brief study of the monetary and financial situations.

Cabinet Decision No. 2 dated 16/2/2026.

After a series of meetings and movements, and following close follow-up by the public sector leagues, whether individually or collectively within the framework of the Public Sector Leagues Gathering (military and civilian), the Cabinet approved in its Decision No. 2 dated 16/2/2026 a draft decree aimed at granting temporary compensation as of 1/3/2026 to all public sector employees and retirees receiving a pension, equivalent to six times the basic salary, compensation, monthly wage, or pension, provided that the military supplements stipulated in Finance Minister Decision No. 4/1 dated 10/1/2023 are adopted. The Cabinet also requested that the Ministry of Finance prepare the necessary draft law to open the financial appropriations needed to cover the expenses resulting from the approved increase.

In the same decision, the Cabinet also requested that the salary correction draft law prepared by the Civil Service Board be studied within a deadline no later than the end of March 2026, provided that this law includes an increase in salaries as of 1/1/2027 so that they become 30 times their current level, equivalent to 50 percent of the value of those salaries in 2019.

The current situation

In light of the above, the Ministry of Finance prepared the draft law related to the six multipliers, and the finance minister presented it to the Cabinet at its session held on 30/4/2026, where the Cabinet approved the draft law and the draft decree referring it to Parliament in accordance with due process. We are fully confident that this draft will be given the legal course it deserves, and as quickly as possible, especially now that the living conditions of public sector employees and retirees have become pressing, indeed suffocating, and require urgent rescue measures, particularly after the additional burdens recently imposed and the accompanying renewed rise in prices.

Given the growing voices opposing the granting of the approved increase to us and warning of exchange-rate instability, we wish to clarify to public opinion that this increase is not six salaries in the commonly understood meaning of the term 'salary.' Rather, it is six parts of a salary that was shattered by the monetary collapse into 60 parts, of which only 1/60 remained to us, while we lost 59 parts. After several reviews, we now have 13 parts of the salary, and if we add to them the six parts covered by Cabinet Decision No. 2 dated 16/2/2026, we reach 19 parts out of 60.

In conclusion

To say that we are receiving a salary is inaccurate under the current circumstances, as what we receive is the remnants of a salary. We rely on these remnants, currently amounting to 13 times, to secure the essential requirements of life for ourselves and our families, whose expenses have risen at least 60-fold under a customs dollar that the government raised 60 times, and to pay taxes and fees that have increased by more than 90 times as a result of successive legislation. It would have been only fair if the increase in the customs dollar, taxes, and fees had been accompanied by a rise in salaries by the same proportion. But since matters have unfolded in the well-known manner, with rapid steps taken to impose burdens and slow steps taken to grant rights, continuing along this path cannot be described as concern for public funds and monetary stability. In reality, it is a persistence in turning a blind eye to blatant injustice.

Accordingly, adding the six multipliers has become necessary and urgent under the current living conditions in order to protect social security and social safety. This addition is nothing more than the recovery of parts of a shattered salary, which will not become a full salary again except by restoring all its lost parts. Our eyes remain on the government's commitment to its Decision No. 2 dated 16/2/2026 that salaries will become 30 times their current level as of 1/1/2027, that is, 50 percent of their 2019 value, as a prelude to gradually restoring that full value in accordance with what was set out above.

Proposals

While granting rights to those entitled to them is an important aspect, the more important aspect is restoring order to the salaries and compensation sector, as we observe in the public sector two administrations: one as though it were an oasis, and another as though it were a desert. This has negatively affected the principle of social solidarity, which requires that everyone share in bearing the burdens of the country's economic situation.

In this context, we propose the following: when granting the six multipliers, it is of the utmost importance to set a minimum and a maximum that apply to the total value of all multipliers together (that is, the basic salary, the current multipliers, and the six new multipliers), and not only to the value of the six new multipliers. In this way, the financial burden on the treasury would be lighter on the one hand, and on the other hand the increase would go to those who truly deserve it.

Adopt the effective salary scale whenever any new contract or appointment is made, in any position whatsoever and without any exception, provided that after determining the salary legally due to the person concerned, that salary is multiplied by the same number of multipliers in force on the date of that contract or appointment.

Reinstate, as of the beginning of the new fiscal year on 1/1/2027, the maximum ceiling for compensation paid from public funds, provided that for the purpose of calculating that maximum ceiling, the basic salary of the person concerned together with the multipliers is taken into account.

The steps we propose above are simple and feasible, and constitute a promising beginning in terms of rationalizing spending, activating controls, and restoring order to the salaries and compensation sector."