The Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) has moved to court under a certificate of urgency to have the Salaries and Remuneration Commission barred from gazetting a notice reflecting the new pay structure for Members of Parliament.

The MPs argue that the new pay structure, which SRC revealed in July, did not consider the high cost of living while trimming the pay for the 12^th parliament.

According to the MPs SRC failed to conduct a study on labor market efficiency, dynamics on the prevailing economic situation and a comprehensive job evaluation before reviewing and setting the new structures of salaries, remuneration and benefits of state officers.

In July this year slashed salaries of top government officials in the latest effort by the commission to tame the ballooning public wage bill.

 Under the reviewed salary structures for 2017-2022, MPs’ salaries slashed from Sh 710,000 to Sh 621, 250 per month and scrapped off both sitting and mileage allowances.

The President’s monthly gross will now be Ksh1.4 million from Ksh1.6m; the Deputy President’s Ksh1,227,188, down from  1,402,500 while the salaries for Cabinet Secretaries will be Ksh924,000 from Sh1,056 000. Permanent Secretaries will be earning Sh765, 000 from Sh874, 000 while that of Speakers of both houses has been reduced to Sh1.1m down from 1.3 and Governors Sh924k.

If implemented, the new salary structure will save the country Sh 8.8 billion per annum, bringing down the wage bill to about 35% of the GDP.