A Pay Ladder Under Pressure
A wave of new employment contracts is unsettling the public-sector salary scale in Syria, where longstanding seniority rankings are colliding with widening wage gaps. The strain has grown as the state layers fresh increases onto a structure built for an earlier era.
The result is a pay ladder whose rungs no longer line up cleanly, leaving workers with similar lengths of service on sharply different salaries.
Two Decrees, Uneven Reach
The current structure rests on two measures issued in March 2026. Decree No. 67 granted a general 50 percent increase on fixed wages for most public and joint-sector bodies, while excluding categories already covered by a separate wage system.
Decree No. 68 then delivered targeted raises to specific groups, including workers in health, education and higher education, religious endowments, the Central Bank, oversight bodies, and the Atomic Energy Commission.
Where the Floor Sits
After the latest increase, official data put the monthly minimum wage at about 1.256 million Syrian pounds (SYP), measured in the old denomination. The figure sets the base against which the broader scale is calculated.
A System Built for 2027
The Ministry of Finance has said since March 2026 that it is working to rebuild the wage system, with the aim of a single framework covering all sectors by early 2027. The stated goal is a fair and sustainable structure rather than a series of one-off raises, and the present disputes fall within that transition.
The Distortion Problem
Ahmed Qahtan, a researcher in wage policy and administrative reform, has cautioned that applying a uniform percentage increase lifts salaries from very different starting points, which can preserve much of the existing distortion rather than close it. Without a rebased scale, he argues, each across-the-board raise risks widening the very gaps it is meant to ease.