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On February 20, 2025, President John Mahama’s government announced a 10% increase in the salary of public sector workers.
This generated a public uproar as the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) downplayed the increment, emphasizing that it was too small compared to the increments under their government.
The Member of Parliament for Assin South Constituency, John Ntim Fordjour, shared data on X about what he believed was the yearly increase in public sector wages from 2017 to 2024. Accompanying the data, he wrote that the past government was not appreciated even though they had increased public sector workers’ salaries higher than the current increment.
“In 2024, Akufo-Addo offered all public sector workers 25% salary increment. Yet a section of organized labour threatened strike action and were up in arms. Today, Mahama offers same public sector workers a paltry 10% increase in salary. Meanwhile, a section of organized labour have welcomed this whole-heartedly, while some unions have further turned themselves into Government Spokesmen justifying why Mahama’s 10% is reasonably acceptable. What has changed? Are we not in the same economy? Eiii stomach agenda nkoaa!”
Fact-check Ghana has verified the data above and presents the findings below.
Fact-check Ghana’s checks reveal that the data presented by the former Minister of Education is largely true but not entirely accurate.
Indeed, in 2017, when the NPP assumed office, the salary of pubic sector workers was increased by 12.5%.
In 2018, Ghana’s Public Services Joint Standing Negotiating Committee concluded on a 11% raise. The increment for 2019 was 10%. The following year, in 2020, Ghana’s civil servants’ basic salary saw a 15% hike.
In 2021, the year former President Nana Akufo-Addo started his second term in office, the base pay of public sector workers was increased by 4%. There were rumours that the government had increased these wages by a 15% interim premium to staff of the Civil and Local Government Services (CLOGSAG). However, the Ministry of Finance refuted those rumours saying:
“We wish to reiterate that government has not granted any 15% increase in base pay to any public sector institution on the Single Spine Salary Structure and that the only adjustment on the Base Pay for the public service still remains the 4% for the 2021 financial year. Therefore, no new agreement has been reached on the payment of premium.”
On January 6, 2022, the then minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, announced that government was going to add 3% to the 4% increase public sector workers enjoyed in 2021.
Speaking at the 90th-anniversary ceremony of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Kumasi, Ignatius Baffour Awuah said the increment will take immediate effect.
“In return, we had to negotiate with the leadership of Organised Labour, and in the process, we had to agree that we had to be modest in our request on the national kitty. The beautiful thing is that we are moving on, and we had agreed that coming into this current year, the 4 percent will no longer exist and that we are going to give workers 7 percent which is an increment. It is my hope and belief that things begin to work better for the economy of our country, so we can give our workforce a better remuneration we can actually be proud of,” he said.
In August 2022, due to agitation by civil servants, the government agreed to increase the base pay again. This time, it was by 15% popularly known as Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).
In 2023, the government and Organised Labour agreed a 30 percent increase. In the last year of President Akufo-Addo’s government the salary was increased by 23% in January. In July of 2024, the government again increased the pay by 25%.
| Year | Salary Increment % |
| 2017 | 12.5 |
| 2018 | 11 |
| 2019 | 10 |
| 2020 | 15 |
| 2021 | 4 |
| 2022 | 7 and 15(COLA) |
| 2023 | 30 |
| 2024 | 23 and 25 |
| 2025 | 10 |
From the above, it is evident that the MP for Assin South Constituency, John Ntim Fordjour’s claims about the increase in the salaries of public sector workers is largely true, except for the year 2021 where he wrongly added the rumoured 15% interim premium.
