Zambia’s Emoluments Commission sits at the intersection of pay equity, public-sector productivity and fiscal stability. Its effectiveness could influence not only what public officers earn, but also how efficiently government converts its wage bill into services for citizens.
Public-sector remuneration is often discussed as an employment matter, but its consequences reach much further. Salaries, allowances, pensions and other benefits are major and recurring claims on public resources. How they are determined can affect the national budget, employee morale, skills retention and the quality of services delivered by government institutions.
This is where Zambia’s Emoluments Commission assumes considerable economic importance.
The Commission was established under Article 232 of the Constitution of Zambia following the 2016 constitutional amendments. Its operational framework is provided by the Emoluments Commission Act No. 1 of 2022.
Its mandate includes determining the emoluments of public officers, chiefs and members of the House of Chiefs on the recommendation of the relevant authority or commission. Article 264 also gives it responsibility for determining the emoluments of State officers, councillors, constitutional office holders and judges.
Its broader functions include formulating public-sector pay policy, rationalising salaries and conditions of service, coordinating job evaluation, conducting remuneration research and monitoring compliance with approved standards. The Commission’s official institutional profile describes its vision as fair, equitable and sustainable remuneration in the public sector.
Why Zambia needed a coordinated pay institution
The Commission was created in response to a long-standing problem: public-sector remuneration had developed through numerous laws, institutional arrangements and negotiating points.
This produced significant differences in salaries, allowances, gratuities, pensions and other benefits across government institutions. Employees performing work of comparable responsibility could receive markedly different compensation depending on the institution employing them.
The 2025 Public Sector Pay Policy reports that differences between salary grades in the mainstream public service ranged from 2 per cent to 143 per cent, based on June 2023 payroll data.
Some differences may be justified by scarce skills, institutional complexity or market conditions. Others can arise from uncoordinated negotiations, inconsistent job grading and allowances introduced without a common framework.
The economic problem is not simply that one institution pays more than another. Unexplained disparities can weaken morale, encourage employees to move between public institutions for pay rather than productivity, and place pressure on other institutions to match increases they may not be able to afford. A coordinated system can reduce that form of salary leapfrogging.
Fair pay does not always mean higher pay
The Commission’s positive economic role should not be understood as continually increasing public-sector salaries. Nor should it be reduced to suppressing wages.
Its more important task is to create a defensible relationship between the value of a job, its responsibilities, required skills, institutional performance and the country’s ability to pay.
That requires examining total remuneration, not only basic salaries. Allowances, gratuities, pensions, medical benefits and separation packages can materially increase the cost of employing a public officer.
A rational remuneration system should determine whether comparable jobs are being compensated on comparable terms, whether scarce technical skills can be retained, whether adjustments are affordable over several years, and whether compensation reflects responsibility and performance.
The Commission’s job-analysis and evaluation function is central to this process. Proper evaluation assesses qualifications, responsibilities, working conditions and the complexity of each position before placing it within a salary structure. This supports equal pay for work of equal value while allowing genuine differences in responsibility and skill to be recognised.
Turning the wage bill into an economic instrument
Government’s wage bill is normally viewed as an expenditure item. It can also be understood as an investment in the institutions responsible for education, health, revenue collection, regulation, security and economic administration.
The economic return on that investment depends on performance. A well-designed remuneration system can help government retain teachers, health professionals, engineers, economists, accountants, information-technology specialists and regulators. Losing experienced personnel creates recruitment costs, institutional disruption and gaps in service delivery.
Competitive pay alone will not solve every performance problem. Management quality, equipment, workplace culture and accountability also matter. Nevertheless, a remuneration structure perceived as arbitrary or unfair can undermine even well-managed institutions.
The Public Sector Pay Policy proposes stronger performance-management systems and greater use of technology. Its measures include developing systems that connect pay to performance and promoting automation in performance management.
This is potentially one of the Commission’s most valuable reforms, but also one of the most difficult. Performance-related compensation requires credible targets, reliable data and protections against favouritism. Without those foundations, performance pay can create another source of disputes.
Protecting fiscal stability
Public-sector pay decisions have consequences extending beyond the institution receiving an adjustment. Salaries and benefits are recurring obligations, so an increase approved today may have to be financed for many years. It can also affect pension liabilities, gratuities and demands from employees in comparable institutions.
The Commission’s mandate creates an opportunity to assess these decisions within a wider fiscal framework. Affordability, macroeconomic stability and the sustainability of the public-sector wage bill are among the guiding principles in the 2025 Pay Policy.
According to the Commission’s 2025 Annual Report, four quarterly public-sector wage-bill forecasts were completed during the year.
Forecasting allows government to consider the future cost of salary decisions instead of looking only at the immediate budget impact. It can improve medium-term budgeting and help prevent a rapid increase in personnel costs from crowding out medicines, school materials, agricultural programmes and infrastructure.
The Commission can therefore contribute to fiscal discipline without making fairness secondary. Its value lies in balancing the legitimate interests of public officers with the equally legitimate interests of taxpayers and citizens who rely on public services.
Early implementation results
The Commission’s 2025 Annual Report records progress in several areas. It processed 131 emoluments-related cases against an annual target of 100. It coordinated job-analysis and evaluation exercises in 12 institutions against a target of eight. Nine institutions completed the exercise, while three remained at the job-description stage.
The Commission also rationalised or harmonised salaries and conditions of service in 32 institutions. This was below its target of 50 institutions but still represented a substantial expansion of the common remuneration framework.
The Public Sector Pay Policy and its implementation plan were launched on 3 April 2025. The policy provides for a two-year review cycle, wage-bill forecasting, job evaluation, improved management of separation benefits and stronger consideration of gender, disability and workplace health issues.
The Commission’s financial statements also received a positive opinion from the Office of the Auditor General, which concluded that they presented the institution’s cash receipts, payments and budget execution fairly in all material respects. No key audit matters were identified.
The next test is compliance
Policy formulation is only the first stage. The larger test is whether State institutions implement the Commission’s decisions consistently.
The annual report acknowledges that compliance monitoring was significantly constrained in 2025. Planned monitoring of institutions following rationalisation, job evaluation and Commission resolutions was not completed because of staffing shortages and non-operational monitoring tools.
Training also fell short of expectations. Fifty-two of 230 public-sector institutions received training in the Integrated Emoluments Determination Framework, equivalent to approximately 23 per cent of institutions. The target was to reach at least 80 per cent.
The Commission reported filling 54 of 81 approved positions. It also cited delayed funding, limited resources for nationwide activities and delays in operationalising its Emoluments Management Information System.
These gaps do not weaken the economic case for the Commission. They show what must be addressed if the institution is to deliver its intended benefits. A pay policy without reliable data, adequate staff and effective enforcement risks becoming advisory.
A positive institution for workers and taxpayers
For public officers, a credible Emoluments Commission offers the prospect of greater fairness, predictable reviews and clearer recognition of qualifications and responsibility.
For government, it can provide stronger control over recurring personnel costs, improve wage-bill forecasting and reduce pressure from fragmented negotiations. For citizens, the ultimate benefit should be a more motivated and productive public service delivering better services without placing an unsustainable burden on the national budget.
The Commission should therefore be judged by more than whether a particular salary rises or falls. Its success should be measured by whether it narrows unjustified disparities, improves staff retention, strengthens performance and keeps public-sector compensation within Zambia’s economic capacity.
Public-sector pay will always involve difficult choices. An independent, technically capable and transparent institution cannot remove those choices, but it can ensure they are made using evidence, consistent standards and a clearer understanding of their long-term economic consequences.
If Zambia fully equips the Emoluments Commission to conduct research, operate its digital systems and enforce its decisions, the institution could become an important part of the country’s economic governance architecture.
It could help transform the public wage bill from a fragmented collection of salary obligations into a more strategic investment in capable institutions, effective services and national development.
Related reading
- Treasury Releases K21.1 Billion for July Services and Debt
- Balancing Politics and Fiscal Discipline in Zambia
- What the Next Government Inherits: Zambia’s Economy in August 2026
Source: Emoluments Commission.
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