The ministry of finance said Saturday that a maximum wage to be implemented in the administrative arm of the government in January. The ministry has set the rate at 35 times the minimum wage.

The decision will touch around 20,000 persons in leadership positions in the administrative arm of the government. The decision won't affect the Central Bank of Egypt, public banks and insurance companies during the first phase of implementation.

No timeline was given on a second phase.

Promises about wage cap reforms were given by two former ministers of finance appointed after January 25 revolution.

The new decision seems to be based on the existing draft that sets the rate at 36 times the minimum wage of a third-grade employee in the same government body.

The battle for wage caps already started in the Ministry of Industry and Trade after Mahmoud Issa, the minister, set a maximum salary for employees in organisations dependent on his ministry, such as the Industrial Modernisation Centre (IMC).

After the minister's declaration, a war of words started between the centre’s head, Hany El-Ghazaly, who refused to cut his salary accordingly, and the minister.

The decision to set a maximum wage may face resistance. However, others see the decision in positive terms. “In the United States, the salary of the president of the republic is only 16 times the salary of the smallest employee. Are we more liberal than the United States?” asks Ahmed Galal, executive director of the Economic Research Forum.