The Deputy Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Joshua Ansah, says the Single Spine Salary Structure has totally failed to achieve its objective.

The Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) is one of the major components of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) introduced by the Government of Ghana and got implemented in 2010, to regulate the payment of public service workers especially those under article 190 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

It was meant to address the pay disparities within the sector.

However, following a 2022 Ghana Statistical Service report, it has been revealed that the pay gap has rather widened over time. Currently, the highest earner on the Single Spine Structure is receiving 81 times what the lowest earner is receiving.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, Joshua Ansah noted that it was time for the policy to be relooked at comprehensively to ensure that the situation is remedied.

“I’ll say it has totally failed to achieve its objective that was set for the single spine salary structure. A lot of things go wrong and we think that we need to relook at the single spine pay straucture which I think a committee has been put in place to look at. But there are so many things and so many factors that has actually resulted in the low incomes for workers in this very country.

“And I think that it is time for us to actually relook and check what went wrong, what has gone wrong and why is it that we’re unable to achieve the objective for which the single spine salary which was to be the panacea for pay disparities in this country is not achieving.

“So I think that it has not achieved its purpose and we think that we need to relook at it holistically, otherwise this problem is going to persist every day, now and then,” he said.