Saudi- GOSI statistics reveal poor salaries

(MENAFN- Arab News) A report drafted by the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) has said that 52.8 percent of registered subscribers were drawing monthly salaries of less than SR1,000. "While 21 percent of subscribers earned as little as SR500 per month, 31.4 percent drew between SR500 and SR900," a local daily reported Saturday. The total number of GOSI subscribers is pegged at 2.86 million. The report showed that 29.7 percent received incomes of between SR1,000 and SR2,999. More than 698,400 subscribers are in the SR3,000 to SR9,999 bracket, accounting for 12.9 percent of subscribers. Subscribers who received SR10,000 only accounted for 4.7 percent, the report said. The minimum income of a Saudi worker has been fixed at SR3,000 as part of the wage protection program being implemented by the Labor Ministry. Muhammad Al-Qahtani of the Business Department at King Faisal University, suspects that some of the information provided in the report is inaccurate. He said there should be total transparency in relations between the employers, workers and GOSI. He suggested that services provided by GOSI should focus only on Saudi citizens because unlike citizens, expatriate workers benefit from a mandatory medical insurance scheme. The GOSI pension system, which is mandatory for Saudis, requires that 9 percent of the salary should be contributed by the worker, while another 9 percent is to be contributed by the employer. The worker becomes eligible for pension when he or she retires or becomes incapacitated. A family pension is given in the case of death. Employees who fall victim to accidents or diseases related to their jobs are paid for their treatment. They are also paid daily allowances and monthly payments and, in some cases, a lump sum in line with a GOSI decision implemented in 2002.