President John Dramani Mahama says the Single Spine Salary Structure, which late president John Evans Atta Mills implemented to create a distinct pay plan whereby employees in the same pay scale are paid equally, has now become a pale shadow of its original idea.
The policy, famously known as “SSSS or Single Spine Salary Structure”, gained prominence during Professor Mills’ reign from 2009 to 2012, offering a respite to many government workers.
However, when President Mahama met with the press on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, he reiterated that the policy, which valued every job equally and provided uniform wages in the public sector, is now struggling to survive.
Addressing concerns about public sector workers’ salaries at his maiden meet-the-press encounter held at the Jubilee House, President Mahama said, “Single Spine no ato nsuo mu”, to wit, the policy has failed.
Shedding light on the policy which was implemented while he was the vice president to Prof Mills, he explained that “In our first incarnation under Professor Mills, we established a single-spine salary structure.
The salary structure was supposed to pay uniform wages in the public sector so that the disparity would not be too wide.”
However, he stated that the policy “no ato nsuo mu” is due to government’s inability to maintain discipline in public sector wages, saying, “Over the last eight years, the group that is able to strike the most gets more addition to their wages than those that don’t go on strike.”
This situation, he pointed out, has reintroduced the vast disparities that existed in the past, prompting the need for an immediate remedy.
To address the growing phenomenon, President Mahama assured that “we are in consultation with organised labour to see what we can do about reforming public sector wages, and I’m sure that if those wages are made better, journalists working in the public sector would also have an improvement in their remuneration.”
Nevertheless, he emphasised that the government does not have control over what happens in the private space concerning remuneration for journalists employed by private media organisations.
On Wednesday, September 10, 2025, President Mahama had his maiden encounter with the media since his return to the presidency for the second time following his electoral victory in the 2024 general elections.
The meeting with the press, Mahama said, fulfilled his pledge to be transparent and accountable to the people of Ghana and to keep them abreast of the “state of affairs at every juncture in my term of office.”
“I’m pleased to have the opportunity through this media encounter to address the good people of Ghana through you and answer any questions that may be on the public’s mind,” he stated.
