Even though the sixth Pay Commission has recommended a healthy increase in salaries, a comparison reveals that the entry-level minimum salaries in the central government are now higher than in the private sector.

However, the wide difference between private sector chief executives and senior officials remains.

Following the Sixth Central Pay Commission's report, the minimum entry level pay works out to Rs 7,681 per month for a trained employee, a 36 per cent increase from the previous scale of Rs 5,623, says Kavim V Bhatnagar, pension policy consultant, Invest India Economic Foundation.

The pay package of a secretary-level officer has been revised to Rs 80,000 from Rs 26,000 per month.

However, even as the revised remuneration of government officials has reduced the gap between the pay packages of these officials vis-a-vis the private sector, experts say a huge difference arises in the huge promotional avenues that the private sector has to offer.

According to Amit Azad, head, finance and operations, Finesse PR, a communication and people consultancy, the kind of remuneration one gets after a year's experience in the private sector is much more.

"For instance, a person qualifying to be secretary has around three decades of experience. With such an experience in the private sector, the remuneration would be around Rs 4-5 lakh (Rs 400,000-500,000), whereas according to the revised pay structure, a secretary-level officer in the government will only get Rs 80,000," Azad added.

According to Azad, the private sector has been a bad pay-master to the lower strata of the workforce and this disparity seems ever increasing.

"For government employees at the lower level, being in a government job is considered to be a much safer option. The sense of security is much high, unlike in the private sector," said Arvind Sehegal, director, New Era India Consultancy.

<P><a href=http://www.rediff.com/money/paycom.html target=_new><B>The 6^th Pay Commission: Complete Coverage</B></A>