The size and composition of the public wage bill spending have been the subject of research by economists for many decades and has generated debate on many issues including on the size of the government, the fiscal implications of higher public wage spending, its impact on inclusive growth, the efficiency of the wage determination process, and the fiscal rigidities introduced by large wage bill spending (IMF, 2016). The continued interest in public wage spending is unsurprising considering its relatively large share in total government spending across all countries, ranging from 7.4 percent of GDP in developing countries to 10.2 percent in advanced countries.1 A comprehensive evaluation of the size of wage bill spending needs to also consider the competitiveness of public wages with private sector wages since competitive public wages are needed to attract and retain adequately skilled staff for the efficient delivery of public services.