Civil service pay...

Thought this might be of interest for those civil servants out there. The minimum civil service salary here is $70/month. If you're lucky enough to get a civil service job - formal sector unemployment is about 85%. There are about 15 different civil service 'bands' (or grades or ranges). Civil service salaries declined in the 80s and significantly during the conflict in the late 1990s. As GDP plummeted 90%, civil service salaries also fell by similar amount.

But this isn't the only form of pay. Salaries are paid in Liberian dollars, but there are also allowances, which are paid in US dollars. Allowances are pretty significant, and can be even more than the base salary. Nevertheless, civil servant salaries are low. But the Budget is pretty small too. The wage bill to revenues is about 45%. The cost of living is quite high here; a bag of rice is about $25, leaving little for much else. I'm not sure what the World Bank poverty line of $2/day (or $1/day extreme poverty) would translate to in PPP terms here today, but $70/month is pretty much there...