Abu Bakr El-Gendy, the head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) and a member of the National Council of Wages (NCW) denied that the NCW would set wage limits in the next week.

El-Gendy’s denial follows a report in the Egyptian press Monday morning which stated that the NCW will meet next week for the first time after its restructuring to determine the minimum and maximum wage for governmental employees.

“The national council of wages has already been restructured by the decision of the Prime Minister on 6 September 2011and have not any agenda yet,” El-Gendy told Ahram Online.

“The Council is only concerned with the minimum wages not the maximum,” he added.

Hazem El-Beblawi, Egypt's deputy prime minister and minister of finance proposed to the Cabinet that the government set a wage ratio of 36 to1 between all top managerial positions in the public sector and regular employees.

Since taking office last March, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has promised to cap salaries for top government officials in order to fend off public criticism that managers are over compensated.