Wages and benefits for Israel's state employees soared NIS 3.5 billion in 2018, exceeding the NIS 100 billion mark for the first time. State employees' wages and benefits rose by NIS 15.662 billion during the four years of Moshe Kahlon's term as minister of finance.
The figures are from the government's financial statements published by Accountants General in the Ministry of Finance. The current report by Accountant General Rony Hizikiyahu was put on the Ministry of Finance website today.
The wages and benefits item refers only to employees in government ministries; it does not include wages and benefits for employees in local authorities, government companies, or state corporations. It also excludes wages and benefits paid in the IDF, Israel Police, and the Israel Prison Service. Most of the increases in salary and benefits are received first by state employees and later by other public servants, whose numbers, like those of state employees are continually rising.
Kahlon became responsible for state finances in May 2015. Sometime afterwards, then-Accountant General Michal Abadi-Boiangiu signed the state's financial statements for the year ending on December 31, 2014. The item for wages and benefits for government employees in those statements was NIS 86,799 billion, NIS 3.8 billion more than in 2013, when Yair Lapid was Minister of Finance (his term was from March 2013 until December 2014).
Already in the first year of his term, Kahlon, probably inspired by his statements on social affairs and the close relations he developed with then-Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) chairperson Avi Nissenkorn (now an MK from the Blue White Party), increased the wages and benefits item by NIS 4.24 billion to NIS 91 billion, according to the government financial statements published in for 2015 in June 2016.
Salaries and benefits for state employees continued their upward path in 2016, according to the official report. The government financial statements for 2017 reported that the figure reached NIS 98,962 billion, and the figures published today for 2018 show a new record of NIS 102,461 billion, a rise of NIS 20 billion since 2013. Salaries and benefits for state employees have more than doubled since Netanyahu resumed his post as prime minister in March 2013. When he was minister of finance, Netanyahu repeatedly referred to the pathological state of the government, with the business sector, the "thin man," carrying the governmental sector, the "fat man," on its back. Since then, the fat man has become an even more obsessive eater, while the thin man has been suffering from anorexia.
Spending on wages and benefits for state employees was NIS 82,963 billion in 2013, NIS 86,799 billion in 2014, NIS 91,006 billion in 2015, NIS 93,796 billion in NIS 2016, NIS 98,962 billion in 2017, and NIS 102,461 billion in 2018.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 2, 2019
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2019