Local
Within the framework of ongoing efforts aimed at enhancing social protection and elevating the living standards of the working class, relevant authorities in the Kurdistan Region have announced the official implementation of the decision to raise the minimum retirement salary for private sector retirees to five hundred thousand Iraqi dinars, coinciding with the commencement of distributing September dues for retired workers. In this context, the Director General of Labor and Social Security, Mariwan Bakوك Aziz, clarified that this step came in direct response to the directives of the region's Prime Minister, Masrour Barzani, and based on the decision issued by the Council of Ministers. He pointed out that those affected by the decision whose previous salaries ranged between one hundred fifty and four hundred thousand dinars will receive the new minimum limit starting from the month of September, confirming that all administrative procedures to institutionalize and enforce this increase have been finalized. The government official added that the calculation of retirement salaries for workers follows a mechanism similar to that of public sector employees, as they are closely tied to years of service, specialization, and the last salary received by the worker before retirement. Regarding retirement conditions, Bakok noted that the retirement and social security law enforced in the region sets the legal age for men upon reaching sixty years old provided they complete twenty years of actual service, while it is set for women upon reaching fifty-five years of age with a service period of no less than twenty years. The official concluded by pointing out the expansion of the social security umbrella to include more than three50 thousand subscribers, which includes two hundred twenty-five thousand workers who were integrated during the ninth cabinet formation of the region, paving the way for the disbursement of the new salaries to everyone according to the specified ceiling.
