Financial services sector offers the best pay

True to common belief, government jobs are among the worst paying in Kenya, with employees earning only a small fraction of what their peers in the private sector take home.

According to the results of the 2009 survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the monthly salaries of chief executive officers of state corporations fall way below the average cost of hiring that calibre of employees in the private sector.

The chief executive officers of government agencies earn Ksh1,033,292 (just about $12,500), way below the average pay an individual in that position across all sectors, which is put at Ksh1,380,391 ($17,697).

The best-paid private-sector chief executive, according to the 2009 National Human Resource Survey, are in the financial services sector.

The salary of one CEO in the financial services sector, can pay three of his peers heading state corporations, and still have about Ksh0.8 million ($8,000) left over.

Besides financial services, other sectors that pay their CEOs handsomely are insurance services, manufacturing, processing and agriculture, health, professional services, trade, hospitality, and non governmental organisations respectively.

The salaries of CEOs, the PwC survey reveals, seems to have no relationship whatsoever to economic performance, outpacing the latter by a huge margin.

Whereas the average salary of a CEO across all sectors grew by about 30 per cent over the past two years, the economy grew by a paltry 1.7 per cent last year and 7.1 per cent the previous year.

The CEOs in the ICT and multimedia sector were awarded the highest pay rises at about 32.8 per cent while the insurance sector had the lowest at 3.6 per cent.

Besides outlining the highs and lows of CEO pay, the survey — which covered a cross-section of positions in Kenyan organisations, comprising 161 management positions and 21 non-management positions — reveals the large variations in remuneration among workers of similar grades in different sctors.

Low grade workers in some sectors are taking home many times more than what individuals who would be their seniors, with management positions to boot, earn in other sectors.

The financial services sector does not just pay the CEO well, several other top employees have a high cost of employment as well.

At least five out of the top 10 positions ranked in order of the cost of employment can be traced to this sector.

The top 10 positions in order of the cost of employment across all sectors are: Head of corporate banking; divisional general manager; head of personal banking; department chairman; investment manager — banking; director of medical staff; director of laboratory services; head of finance; operations manager and credit risk director.

The management position recording the lowest salary level is a purchasing officer in the manufacturing and processing sector, at Ksh13,203 ($165) a month.