Salary Grade 2023: All You Need To Know

When applying for a job, you may have come across terms such as SG 11, SG 20, and so on. The letters “SG” stand for Salary Grade. In this article, we will talk about what a Salary Grade is, the different Salary Steps, and the Salary Standardization Law in the Philippines.

What is a Salary Grade?

Basically, a Salary Grade (SG) is a number that represents the amount of monthly income received by a government employee. These numbers range from 1 to 33, with 33 being the highest Salary Grade. Naturally, the higher a person’s position, the higher his/her Salary Grade would be. Of course, a higher position also means greater duties and responsibilities.

What are Salary Steps?

Each Salary Grade is comprised of 8 steps, with the exception of SG 33, which only has 2 steps. The “Salary Step” corresponds to a person’s basic salary, depending on his/her length of service in a particular position.

If you’re a newly-hired employee, you will start at the minimum rate — Step 1 — regardless of Salary Grade. After 3 years of consecutive service, you will move up to Step 2, which corresponds to a salary increase. After another 3 years, you will move up to Step 3… and so on until you reach Step 8, which is the highest step and corresponds to the maximum rate.

In other words, you can expect a salary increase every 3 years… as long as you perform your tasks well, of course! You will receive a Notice of Step Increment for every salary increase.

Salary Grade 2021 Table Effective January 1, 2021

Salary Grade	Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4
1	12,034	12,134	12,236	12,339
2	12,790	12,888	12,987	13,087
3	13,572	13,677	13,781	13,888
4	14,400	14,511	14,622	14,735
5	15,275	15,393	15,511	15,630
6	16,200	16,325	16,450	16,577
7	17,179	17,311	17,444	17,578
8	18,251	18,417	18,583	18,751
9	19,593	19,757	19,922	20,089
10	21,205	21,382	21,561	21,741
11	23,877	24,161	24,450	24,742
12	26,052	26,336	26,624	26,915
13	28,276	28,589	28,905	29,225
14	30,799	31,143	31,491	31,844
15	33,575	33,953	34,336	34,724
16	36,628	37,044	37,465	37,891
17	39,986	40,444	40,907	41,376
18	43,681	44,184	44,694	45,209
19	48,313	49,052	49,803	50,566
20	54,251	55,085	55,934	56,796
21	60,901	61,844	62,803	63,777
22	68,415	69,481	70,565	71,666
23	76,907	78,111	79,336	80,583
24	86,742	88,158	89,597	91,059
25	98,886	100,500	102,140	103,808
26	111,742	113,565	115,419	117,303
27	126,267	128,329	130,423	132,552
28	142,683	145,011	147,378	149,784
29	161,231	163,863	166,537	169,256
30	182,191	185,165	188,187	191,259
31	268,121	273,358	278,697	284,140
32	319,660	326,107	332,682	339,392
33	403,620	415,728

Salary Grade 2021 Table Effective January 1, 2021

Salary Grade	Step 5	Step 6	Step 7	Step 8
1	12,442	12,545	12,651	12,756
2	13,187	13,288	13,390	13,493
3	13,995	14,101	14,210	14,319
4	14,848	14,961	15,077	15,192
5	15,750	15,871	15,993	16,115
6	16,704	16,832	16,962	17,092
7	17,713	17,849	17,985	18,124
8	18,920	19,091	19,264	19,438
9	20,257	20,426	20,597	20,769
10	21,923	22,106	22,291	22,477
11	25,038	25,339	25,643	25,952
12	27,210	27,509	27,811	28,117
13	29,550	29,878	30,210	30,547
14	32,200	32,561	32,927	33,297
15	35,116	35,513	35,915	36,323
16	38,323	38,760	39,203	39,650
17	41,851	42,332	42,818	43,311
18	45,732	46,261	46,796	47,338
19	51,342	52,130	52,932	53,746
20	57,673	58,564	59,469	60,389
21	64,768	65,774	66,797	67,837
22	72,785	73,923	75,079	76,253
23	81,899	83,235	84,594	85,975
24	92,545	94,057	95,592	97,152
25	105,502	107,224	108,974	110,753
26	119,217	121,163	123,140	125,150
27	134,715	136,914	139,149	141,420
28	152,228	154,714	157,239	159,804
29	172,018	174,826	177,679	180,579
30	194,380	197,553	200,777	204,054
31	289,691	295,349	301,117	306,999
32	346,236	353,218	360,342	367,609
33

What is the Salary Grade for Each Government Position?

To have a better idea about the Salary Grade for each position, let us start from SG 1 upwards:

Sub-Professional, Non-Supervisory Positions

Employees under this category are assigned Salary Grades 1 to 10. They are workers performing manual or routine jobs, such as Administrative Aide I, Staff Aide, Draftsman II, and other similar positions. These employees are usually elementary/high school graduates, vocational graduates, or college undergraduates.

Sub-Professional, Supervisory Positions

Workers in this category typically supervise those performing manual, technical, or clerical jobs. Examples of these are Chief Bookbinder or Electrician Foreman, and they are usually high school graduates, vocational graduates, or those who have completed up to 2 years in college. These positions are assigned Salary Grades 4 to 18.

Professional, Non-Supervisory Positions

Examples of workers in this category include Teacher I, Statistician I, and University Professor. They are graduates of 4 or 5-year college courses, and are assigned Salary Grades 8 to 30. As you may have guessed, these positions involve knowledge and practice of specific professions.

Professional, Supervisory Positions

Positions in this category typically require a bachelor’s degree or higher. Assigned with Salary Grades 9 to 33, these employees hold management or supervisory roles in their organizations. Examples of positions in this category are High School Principal I, Director II, Engineer IV, and other similar positions.

Executive Category or Constitutional Officials

These positions are assigned Salary Grades 30 to 33, and they include officials who hold the highest positions in the government. Among these are Senators, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and Vice President. Notably, the President of the Philippines, being the highest-ranking government official in the land, has the highest Salary Grade of 33.

What is the Salary Standardization Law of 2019?

The Salary Standardization Law of 2019 is a law that standardizes the salaries of all government employees, across all agencies of the government. Through this law, the Philippine government aims to promote employee excellence, accountability, and efficiency — while eliminating the need for workers to negotiate with their employers regarding salaries.

To whom does the Salary Standardization Law apply to? Well, it covers all government workers in these offices:

Executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the government;
Local Government Units (LGUs);
Constitutional Commissions and Offices; and
Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) that are not covered by R.A. 10149 (or the GOCC Act of 2011).

At this point, it must be emphasized that the law applies not only to regular employees, but also to contractual or “casual” status workers — full time as well as part-time ones.

How Much is the Salary Increase for Employees?

Of course, the main focus of the Salary Standardization Law is the yearly salary increase for government workers, from 2020 until 2023. Since January 1, 2020, the government has been implementing new Salary Grade Tables, which present the increase in monthly salaries of employees. These shall be carried out in annual “tranches” over a 4-year period. Aside from the basic pay, the law covers benefits, allowances, and performance-based incentives, as well.

As an example, let us consider the monthly salary of an SG 1 employee, a Utility Worker I. Under the new law, his/her monthly salary is PHP 11,068 in 2019 and PHP 11,551 in 2020 (with an increase of PHP 483 per year). Eventually, he/she would receive PHP 12,034 per month in 2021, PHP 12,517 in 2022, and PHP 13,000 in 2023.

In other words, employees with Salary Grades of 1 to 10 can expect an increase of 17.5% in 2020, up to 20.5% in 2023, in accordance with the Salary Standardization Law.

For our next example, let us take a look at the monthly salary of a Nurse I, who has a Salary Grade of 11. His/Her monthly salary is PHP 20,754 in 2019 and PHP 22,316 in 2020 (with an increase of PHP 1,562 per year). Over the following years, he/she would receive PHP 23,877 per month in 2021, PHP 25,439 in 2022, and PHP 27,000 in 2023.

Hence, employees with Salary Grades of 11 to 13 can expect an increase of 24.1% in 2020, up to 30.7% in 2023, based on the Salary Standardization Law.

What About Salaries for Local Government Units?

As per the new law, the Salary Grade Tables for Local Government Unit (LGU) employees are not the same as those in the national government level. Their salaries would be based on whether the LGU is a 1st Class, 2nd Class, 3rd Class (and so on)… City or Municipality.

For cities, employees in a 1st Class City receive the same rates (100%) as those in national government offices. However, workers in a 2nd Class City receive 95% of the national rate, whereas those in a 3rd Class City receive 90%.

For municipalities, employees in a 1st Class Municipality receive 90% of the national rate, those in a 2nd Class Municipality receive 85%, and those in a 3rd Class Municipality receive 80%. So as you can see, the income class of an LGU affects the salary rates of its workers.

Some Final Thoughts

We hope that the above guide has been helpful, especially for those who are planning to work or are already working in a government position. By being familiar with Salary Grades, Salary Steps, and the Salary Standardization Law, you can make sure that you are receiving the right salary and benefits, in accordance with the laws of the Philippines.