All posts in the Public Service are evaluated through the prescribed job grading system. The remuneration for a post is determined on the basis of a number of factors including, but not limited to, the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and the need to recruit and retain employees with appropriate skills and competencies.
All Directors-General in the Public Service are remunerated according to a standard salary structure that consists of a number of elements constituting total cost-to-employer packages (notches). The salary of R1 978 533 that was indicated for the Director-General of the Department of Small Business Development is the minimum notch of the standard salary level applicable to Directors-General.
The salaries of public servants are protected in terms of the provisions of the Public Service Act, 1994. Section 34 of the Act provides that the salary of an employee shall not be reduced without his or her consent except in terms of section 38 of the Act (that deals with wrongly granted remuneration), an act of Parliament or a collective agreement. The size of the Public Service wage bill is being managed through a number of initiatives but the reduction of salaries of individual employees is not being considered.