New Year, New Pay Structure: Iran Unveils Performance-Based Salary Model for 2024
Tehran – A new performance-based salary system for government employees has been officially introduced, marking a significant shift in the country’s administrative and employment policies for the new Iranian year.
Linking Pay to Performance
The new model, enacted as part of the directives for the Seventh Development Plan, ties employee benefits and compensation directly to their individual and institutional performance. Rafi’zadeh, the head of the Administrative and Employment Organization, announced that under the newly mandated payment regulations, employees who demonstrate greater effort and achievement will be eligible for non-mandatory benefits.
“This regulation is related to the operational budgeting mandate within the Seventh Development Plan, under which performance-based payment has been included,” officials stated.
A Transparent and Accountable System
Further elaborating on the mechanics of the system, Qaem’panah, the Vice President for Executive Affairs, provided a clear example: “Performance-based payment means if a program’s progress is 70 percent, then the payment to the manager and employees should also be 70 percent.”
He emphasized that managers must apply the same ratio when compensating their own teams. A key feature of this new framework is the introduction of formal performance evaluation sheets that, for the first time, must be signed by both managers and employees.
Employee Acknowledgment as a Key Factor
This signature serves as a critical component of the process. Officials clarified that if an employee refuses to sign the evaluation form, it is interpreted as a rejection of the assessment, a factor that will directly influence their subsequent payments. This measure is designed to foster mutual accountability and transparency in the workplace.
The move is seen as a step towards modernizing the public sector’s human resource management, aiming to incentivize productivity and align individual contributions with national development goals.