Give Me Power, and I Will Tell You How Much, Why, and From Where I Pay Health Workers

A Realistic and Scenario-Based Analysis of Ethiopia ’s Health Workforce Crisis

By: – Habte H. 

In a just and functional country, public budgets reflect public priorities. But in Ethiopia, the priorities seem wildly skewed. We are living in a moment when physicians and frontline health workers – those tasked with saving lives – are forced to strike for basic dignity. The government’s failure to meet their simplest demands is not about lack of resources; it is about lack of rational leadership and misaligned priorities.

To understand Ethiopia’s dire health sector crisis, let us use a metaphor.

Imagine a household living in poverty. The children sleep on the streets or in crowded spaces with relatives, often going to bed hungry. The family cannot afford food, clothes, or basic housing. Yet, the father spends what little money he has on perfume, synthetic wigs, and shiny toys – luxuries for a starving family. He does so with the delusion that he is building a beautiful future for his wife and kids.

This is precisely how the ruling Prosperity Party (PP) operates Ethiopia’s economy. Ethiopia is a low-income country, with a GDP per capita of only $1,070, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or a maximum of $1,382, per World Economics estimates. Yet the government continues to pour money into prestige infrastructure, ceremonial buildings, and propaganda campaigns – while its health professionals starve, protest, and abandon their posts.

Let us look at the facts. Ethiopia pays its physicians, on average, only $94 per month – about 12,220 ETB. Compare this with physicians in similarly poor countries:

Table 1: Physicians’ Salaries vs. GDP Per Capita in Ethiopia and Comparable Low-Income Countries

Ethiopian doctors are paid eight to fifteen times less than their counterparts in similar economies. And these figures do not even factor in the incentives that other countries offer free housing, food stipends, health insurance, psychosocial support, and career development opportunities.

Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, non-priority sectors are swimming in cash. Bank executives earn over 500,000 ETB per month, road project managers take home 300,000 ETB, and executives in public enterprises enjoy extravagant bonuses. This grotesque imbalance is not just unjust – it is a national health hazard.

So, what would a rational and ethical salary structure look like in Ethiopia today? Based on international benchmarks and the country’s current budgetary capacity, here is a proposed salary scale:

Table 2: Suggested Monthly Salary and Fair Incentive Structure for Ethiopian Health Workers

Budget Feasibility: Can Ethiopia Afford This?

Yes. The government’s annual budget is 1.7 trillion ETB. Ethiopia’s GDP is around $120 billion, which means 15% of GDP for health (as per WHO and African Union recommendations) equals about 18 billion USD, or approximately 1 trillion ETB.

Even using a more conservative figure, allocating just 15% of the national budget to the health sector would yield 255 billion ETB annually. The full implementation of the fair salary and incentive package above would cost only 165.44 billion ETB or $1.182 billion. That leaves around 90 billion ETB for infrastructure and other sectoral investments.

So, what is the Real Issue?

This is not about affordability – it is about willful negligence and flawed priorities. What Ethiopian health professionals are asking for is not charity. It is a restoration of dignity and fairness. If this government continues to ignore its obligation to health workers, then it is not merely incompetent – it is complicit in the erosion of public health and the humanitarian crisis that follows.

The solution? Separate the health sector from the civil service wage structure. Let it operate autonomously, with authority to generate, manage, and allocate its resources. Health is not a ceremonial sector. It is the backbone of any thriving society.

It is time to call things by their name. This is not a protest for pay raises. It is a demand for justice. And those in power must know: a healthy nation starts with healthy health workers – not roads, not buildings, and certainly not public relations campaigns.

Let the numbers speak. Let the nation decide. And if given the power, any rational actor would know exactly where to start.

Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com

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