Three years after the onset of the pandemic, inflation has become one of the main concerns for the global economy. The situation in Pakistan is even more exacerbated due to the macroeconomic challenges and catastrophic flooding that it experienced in 2022.
This has resulted in historically high inflation and a depreciating currency that has severely affected the real incomes of citizens. As high inflation takes its toll on the purchasing power of people, the low and middle income especially salaried people continue to reel from the impact of high commodity prices and rising electricity/fuel prices.
The Bank of Punjab, taking into account the current economic climate, has undertaken various initiatives in an effort to support lower cadre employees of the bank. As a first step, the Bank of Punjab has announced an across the board minimum monthly gross salary of Rs37,500 for all employees. This increase is in line with the bank’s commitment to being a fair and equitable workplace. This increase will benefit all employees, regardless of grade or level. Additionally, the bank has also removed bars between entry level officer grades, clerical and non-clerical staff, and linked minimum gross salary with the minimum financial requirement of all grades in recognition of the fact that all of bank’s employees deserve protection from the inflationary impact.
Furthermore, in order to acknowledge the talent of employees who have joined the bank from leading universities in Pakistan and abroad, their minimum salary has also been revised in line with the market. This will also assist the bank in attracting good quality resources and talent at competitive salaries.
At BOP, the Board of Directors and the Management believe in the wellbeing of all employees. The bank had already taken a number of initiatives during the year 2022 for the welfare of its junior grade employees. This latest round of measures only reaffirms our commitment to support junior grade colleagues and the country at large as we believe that this promotion of pay for performance culture, equity, fairness, merit and transparency, where every effort is being made to adopt the global best practices, will help us achieve our vision of being the first ‘Employer of Choice’.