Most public sector employees in Israel earn more than the national average salary, enjoy job security, automatic pay hikes regardless of performance, better pension terms, and receive well above 21-day vacation allocation typical of the private sector.
Even so 49% of public sector employees including 67% of employees in government ministries are involved in a protracted two-year work dispute about pay hikes, which remains unresolved. New collective agreements are due to be signed this year. These details were revealed state and security services annual salary report for 2019, which was published by the Ministry of Finance director of salary and employment agreements Kobi Bar-Nathan.
According to the report the average monthly salary in an Israeli government ministry in 2019 was NIS 16,991. In the health system the average monthly salary was NIS 18,990 and in the education system the average monthly salary was NIS 13,688. For the sake of comparison the average salary in the private sector in 2019 was NIS 10,800.
The average salary in the public sector rose 2.2% in 2019 and doctors have the highest paid profession in the public sector with an average monthly salary of NIS 37,000 for a full time position in 2019.
Very few public sector employees were laid off in 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic and Bar-Nathan noted that the need for many public sector employees to work from home because of the crisis paves the way to great flexibility in the future.
Employees in the public sector begin with 26 vacation days per year compared with 13 days in the private sector and 30 potential sick days compared with 18 in the private sector. While sick days in the private sector cannot be accumulated beyond 90 days in the public sector there is no ceiling.
Men in the public sector earn more than women with the narrowest gender salary gap in the education systems (6%) and the widest gender gap in the health system (27%).
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 10, 2021
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