The most common thing in the organizational chart of a private company or a public organization is such a salary system pyramidal. A broad base that narrows as you move up the hierarchical ladder. Logically, salaries increase as job positions are reduced, as they get closer to the top of the pyramid.
This is very simple to exemplify. In the case of a public department, for example a ministry, what we would expect is this: at the top of the pyramid is the minister. One step below there are secretaries, then undersecretaries, directors and deputy directors, heads and deputy heads of departments, etc. up to the last administrative staff.
The Argentine public sector breaks with this logic, at least according to the information available and as regards salaries. One could well say, with a figure understandable to all and without anyone feeling offended, that “There are more chiefs than Indians.” In more current terms, There is a caste which is very numerous and at the same time gets the highest salaries in the pay scale.
This statement emerges from the examination of the “Allocation of salaries by sections of employed agents” regime, whose latest available information dates back to July 2023, and was developed by the Directorate for Budget and Evaluation of Personnel Expenses, a unit that depends on the Secretariat of the Treasury of the Ministry of Economy.
Fun facts
From this data we can see a curiosity. Of the total employees who depend on the national public administration, decentralized organizations, armed and security forces (does not include public companies) The largest group is the one that earns the highest gross salaries, That is, the opposite of what one might intuitively think taking into account the pyramid scheme.
About a universe of almost 400,000 employees Distributed across 19 salary bands, this emerges:
– The lowest segment receives an average salary of $176,000. The highest is the segment of those who earn an average of $2,184,000
– On the pyramid floor there are 9,626 employees. In total, they capture 0.5% of the entire public sector wage bill.
At the top of the pyramid is 46,824 employees. They constitute 11% of the total employees and absorb 30% of the wage bill.
It is the most populous segment. This is followed by 40,014 employees who earn an average of almost $485,000 per month. They are 10.3% of the total and retain 6% of the wage bill
These data derive from what the 398,000 employees receive – including employees and permanent ones – who depend on the national executive and also include other non-financial public sector bodies, but not public companies. The report shows gross wages paid in July last year. To arrive at the data published here, the July amounts were adjusted according to the evolution of the public sector price index published by INDEC. Between July and December this index grew by 46%.
The management of La Cámpora
Everything indicates that the highest part of the pyramid is overpopulated includes many trumped-up charges by the last governmentmore precisely by the group La Camporawhich became strong in Ansi and PAMI. And also in AFIPthe organization that added the most jobs in the past year, going from 20,741 to 22,199 workers last year alone.
Last week there was news in this sense. The government reported that it had eliminated 30 senior positions, from managers to deputy directors at PAMI, earning approximately $3,000,000 a month in salary.
Comparing the last published report (third quarter 2023) with the report corresponding to the last quarter of 2019 – end of Mauricio Macri’s government – the change is notable.
The photo of the Macri and CFK governments
At the top of the pyramid and receives the highest salaries Only 16,475 employees were located that year, which was equivalent to 4.4% of the total of 378,363 employees registered at the time. AND They withheld 16% of their salary, half at the end of 2023.
The picture at the end of the second CFK government was this: 26,000 employees at the top of the pyramid, which was equivalent to 6.4% of the total and captured 19% of the wage bill.
So basically The number of employees at the top of the pyramid has tripled in four years.
To explain this illogical pyramid figure, we cannot take into consideration the case of public companies, where the highest salaries are paid.
Most likely, this mass of employees receiving the highest salaries consists of two organizations: AFIP and Anses. Clarion published in May last year that both organizations were the ones paying the best salaries. In AFIP and Anses are governed by your collective labor agreementdifferent from that of the national public administration
In the case of AFIP, its employees receive several supplements: The distribution of a part of the tax collection stands out.
ANSeS workers receive compensation part of the collection of credits granted by that organization. The delay in payment is minimal, which means that the prize is guaranteed. Even Anses employees A bonus is charged based on the number of cases processed by each worker. The workers of these organizations They triple the salaries of those who work in the public administration.
“At the top of the pyramid there are also 4,000 political officials and 500 high authorities,” says a former official who follows these issues on a daily basis. The source recalls that in the APN “57% of employees did so degree, which gives them the right to receive a salary bonus.”
Among public companies, the salaries of Nucleoeléctrica Argentina (NASA) or Aerolíneas or Casa de Moneda stand out. None of them are part of the “pyramid” published here.
A fact to keep in mind. The Treasury report speaks of a total universe of 457,846 employees, distributed as follows: 292,896 between permanent and temporary staff, dependent on the national Executive, plus 70,253 hired. Another 35,621 from other non-financial public bodies and 59,076 from public companies.
The data differs from the report prepared by INDEC. In the last comprehensive staffing report, INDEC counted a total of 343,000 employees, including the central administration, public bodies and companies, but not the Armed and Security Forces. Over the past month, many agencies have failed to provide the information requested by INDEC. The Treasury Bulletin reaches 457,000 employees. Perhaps the Treasury is more rigorous with the figures: after all, that is where the money to pay salaries comes from.
One last fact. In ten years, the total number of public employees reporting to the national government increased by 15%, from 396,000 to 457,000 employees. In that period the GDP did not grow, on the contrary it shrank if we consider the GDP per capita.
Source: Clarin
