Unlimited prices… Why isn’t a government employee in Iraq satisfied with his salary?
Unlimited prices… Why isn’t a government employee in Iraq satisfied with his salary?
2025-09-05 06:40
Shafaq News – Baghdad
As soon as employee Amir Ahmed places his finger on the fingerprint device, announcing the end of his official work at one of the government’s ministries, he takes off his clothes in his car, puts on other clothes, and heads off to another job.
Ahmed wanders the streets of Baghdad, opening taxi apps and starting a new journey to work, free from clients and paperwork. He searches for someone to take him to their destinations for a fee.
“The government salary is no longer sufficient,” Ahmed says in a tired voice. “We’re caught in a vicious circle. Whatever we take from the government, we quickly return to it by paying water and electricity bills, school expenses, and other things.”
He added in his interview with Shafaq News Agency, “Despite the other work I do after work, as a taxi driver, I am also forced to borrow money if my salary is delayed, even for two or three days, due to family expenses.”
Economic conditions force some employees in Iraq to take on additional work to cover their expenses. This isn’t limited to men; even female employees take on other jobs after work, even from home.
Employee Afaf Salah found a job preparing kibbeh, borek, dolma, and pastries in an attempt to supplement her modest salary.
“There are financial obligations covered by the government salary, such as rent, children’s expenses, monthly generator subscriptions, internet service, transportation, and other things,” Afaf told Shafaq News Agency.
It turns out that “our monthly salary runs out within the first two days of the month, forcing us to take on other jobs to cover our daily expenses.”
The sight of employees working other jobs in shops, offices, and private sector companies has become a common occurrence in Iraq. It has become rare for an employee to finish his government job and head home without finding another job, due to the economic pressures that have plagued the working class.
There is a wide gap between employees’ monthly income and their actual need, which amounts to nearly double this amount.
Economic expert Ahmed Abd Rabbo confirmed to Shafaq News Agency that “overtime work for employees is no longer a secondary option or a personal ambition. Rather, it has become a prominent phenomenon that reflects the urgent need to cover living expenses that government salaries are no longer able to meet.”
He points out that “this phenomenon reveals a clear imbalance in the economic balance, as employees’ incomes do not keep pace with the rising costs of daily living, reflecting the fragility of the economic system in providing sufficient income for the effort expended in their primary job.”
Abdul Rabbo stresses that “the solution does not lie in preventing employees from other jobs, but rather in implementing fundamental reforms affecting the salary scale and activating the private sector to become an environment capable of absorbing young talent, rather than having government employees compete with them for the same opportunities.”
The government has established criteria and mechanisms for disbursing salaries, including nominal salary, certification, job title, spousal and child allowances, and incentives and overtime pay in some institutions. However, these measures do not protect most employees due to the meager amounts they receive from these administrative mechanisms.
While the phenomenon of many employees being tied to other jobs reveals a deep economic crisis and a major imbalance in employee pay scales that no longer keep pace with inflation and rising prices, it also creates social and economic problems.
Economically, many private sector workers, including drivers, employees, and those working in private companies, are affected and feel harassed by government employees. This results in a gap where some have more than one job opportunity, while others have no job opportunities.
Many employees’ attempts to find a work-life balance while multitasking are justified, according to researchers, despite some negative consequences.
Psychologist Manahil Al-Saleh explained in an interview with Shafaq News Agency that “the time pressure resulting from being busy with two jobs weakens an employee’s ability to communicate with his family. Due to the pressure of work, he is unable to entertain his family and children and devote himself to meeting their spiritual, emotional, and psychological needs.”
She notes that “the difficult equation in this measure is the oscillation between finding a financial balance that encourages the employee to work overtime and maintaining a stable social life.”
Between a limited government salary and the high cost of living, Iraqi employees find themselves stretched thin by multiple jobs, physically and psychologically exhausting them in order to ensure a minimum standard of living for their families. Meanwhile, experts warn of the repercussions of this phenomenon on the economy, society, and the quality of public services. The only solution to this equation is radical reforms that restore value to government jobs and provide employees with a sense of livelihood security.
shafaq.com
