Tel Tamr, Syria (North Press) – Since its announcement to offer a pay rise in early April, employees of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) have been awaiting the resolution to be implemented amid demands for the rise to be “adequate” so it can improve the living conditions in light of the high prices and low purchasing power.
At the That al-Nitaqayn primary school in Tel Tamr, a town in north Hasakah, the 35-year-old teacher Sabah Rasso, an IDP from the countryside of Sere kaniye (Ras al-Ain), said that her salary is insufficient to provide for her family.
The teacher, who earns monthly 269,000 Syrian pounds (SYP, approximately $68), said, “Prices are overwhelmingly high; my salary hardly pays for our day-to-day expenses, and most of the time we buy materials from the shops on credit.”
“We are not paid enough,” she added.
On April 5, the Executive Council of AANES has discussed in its monthly meeting increasing its employees’ salaries within its potentials.
Similar to other areas in Syria, people of the AANES-held areas suffer from hard living conditions, amid the Syrian pound’s continuous collapse against the foreign currencies.
On Saturday, the Syrian pound recorded 3,850 SYP against each US dollar.
“We were pleased to hear about the salary increase, but the increase by about 25% is a small percentage,” Rasso said.
She believed that the rise should be at least 80% in order to match the high cost of living and the difficult economic conditions.
Ahmad Haydar, a member of the Tel Tamr Council, believed the circulated 25% increase was not enough in light of the poor living and difficult economic conditions.
Haydar agrees with others that the current salaries of workers in the AANES institutions are “insufficient compared to the high prices.”
“The increase should range between 50% and 75% so that the citizen can manage his/her life although this rise is, too, not enough in the meantime.”