Banner reads "A salary that lasts all month", as Egyptian workers demonstrate for better wages (Photo: Mai Shaheen)
Average weekly salaries in Egypt grew by 18.7 percent in 2013 to reach LE761 ($106.40), data from the country's statistics body CAPMAS showed on Wednesday.
In 2012, Egyptian workers were paid an average weekly salary of LE641 ($89.60).
The salary increase depicts a rise for public business sector and government workers, whose average weekly pay grew by 14 percent in 2013 to reach LE964 compared to the year before, according to the report.
Private sector workers in firms employing more than 10 people, on the other hand, saw their weekly pay leap by 11 percent in 2013, compared to 2012, to reach an average of LE439.
The average work week in the public sector increased by two hours from 2012 to 2013 to reach 54 hours, while it decreased by one hour to reach 57 hours in the private sector.
In September 2013, Egypt’s interim cabinet let by then-prime minister Hazem El-Beblawi set the minimum wage for the public sector at LE1,200 (roughly $168).
According to official data, the number of employees in the governmental sector increased by two percent in 2012/13 to reach 5.545 million, compared to 5.439 million a year earlier.
Seventy-one percent of the country's total labour force – 27 million Egyptians – work under the umbrella of the private sector.
Egypt's unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2014 grew to 13.4 percent.
Earlier this week, Egypt’s finance minister stated that spending on wages will climb 13 percent to reach LE209 billion ($29.2 billion) in the coming fiscal year 2014/15, as compared to the current fiscal year that will end in June.
Short link: