Public sector salaries a massive fiscal burden as 10.5 million Iraqis depend on state
Moein Al-Kazemi, a member of the committee, stated that the Ministry of Finance secures 8 trillion Iraqi Dinars monthly to cover the salaries of government employees, retirees, and social protection network beneficiaries.
The report provided a detailed breakdown of the total beneficiaries:
Over 4.2 million are government employees.
More than 3 million are retirees.
Over 3 million are beneficiaries of the social protection network.
This ratio of state-dependent citizens is among the highest in the world, far exceeding that of many other countries. For comparison, a significantly smaller percentage of the population is employed in the public sector in countries like the United States (around 13-15%) and the United Kingdom (around 22-23%), while in many developing countries, the percentage is often below 10%. The sheer size of Iraq's public payroll is an outsized burden on the national budget, diverting critical funds from much-needed capital investments in infrastructure, healthcare, and education.
Al-Kazemi confirmed that these payments are fully secured until the end of the current year, backed by the country's monthly oil revenues, which exceed $6 billion. However, this reliance on a single, volatile source of income to sustain such a massive public payroll leaves the Iraqi economy highly vulnerable to fluctuations in global oil prices and external shocks.
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