The wage bill for state employees and agents is currently around 13% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the government intends to cut spending to around 8% or 9% within the next four years, according to the Minister of Economy and Finance.

Adriano Maleiane said that the application of the new single salary scale for state employees and agents will have an immediate budgetary impact of 19 billion meticais, and it is projected that this cost will be below 10 billion meticais in expenses.

According to the Minister this goal may be the realization of a bill with 21 salary levels that defines the rules and criteria for fixing the remuneration of state employees and agents and other public servants based on the salary of the President of the Republic.

Thus, explained Maleiane, the Government's expectation is that the Assembly of the Republic ratifies a single salary scale to reduce the excessive weight of remunerations, ending with 103 salary scales that currently define the salaries of employees and agents of the State.

"What's going to happen is that everyone who falls under a certain table is going to earn the same thing," he added.

The proposal, which the government also classifies as a salary "pyramid," provides for the harmonization of criteria for defining salaries in the state, placing academic qualifications, seniority, career, and age at the center of the formula.

The document imposes 21 salary levels, with the first level for the lowest salary and the 21st for the highest. Integration into each of the levels will result from the evaluation of each of the four criteria or qualifiers.

The Minister of Economy and Finance said that one of the innovations will be the use of the head of state's salary as a reference for fixing the salaries of the holders of sovereign bodies.

The article that uses the salary of the President of the Republic as an index was already contested by the Mozambican Judges Association, which rejects its application to the professionals of the class, because they consider that it hurts the principle of separation of powers.