JEDDAH — The Labor Ministry will not force private companies to increase salaries of their employees, Dr. Abdul Wahid Al-Humaid, deputy labor minister for planning and development, said yesterday.
“The ministry will look favorably at those private firms that have increased the salaries of their workers, in response to a royal decree raising wages of public servants. At the same time, it will not compel the private sector to raise salaries disregarding their financial positions,” Al-Humaid told reporters.
Last Monday, Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi urged private companies to increase the salaries of their employees in response to the royal gesture raising salaries of public servants. “The government will not interfere in salaries fixed by private firms and will not impose any minimum wage,” Gosaibi said.
He, however, said that he was confident that employers in the private sector would do what was necessary to make their employees “as happy as their counterparts in the public sector.”
