As in the 2004 and 2003 wage reports, the 2005 salary charts starred employees of the health sector. But unlike earlier years, bureaucrats of health management organizations (HMOs) did particularly well, not doctors.

Dr. Azai Appelbaum, who leads the current list of top salary earners, is a well-known personality on the wages director's report. In 2001 and 2002, as the director of cardiothoracic surgery at the Soroka Medical Center, Azai Appelbaum led the list of top earners in the public sector. In 2003 he fell to third place, and in 2004 the highest earners were employees at the Bank of Israel. Appelbaum reappeared to take the crown in 2005, this time as "a director of hospital wards" in HMO Clalit. The director of health maintenance organization Meuhedet, Uzi Salant, and the director of rival Maccabi, Shuki Shemer, are permanent stars on the list.

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Wages director Eli Cohen's annual report is the 13th issued by the office, and covers salaries and other benefits in 683 public institutions

. The organizations encompass 271,305 employees in 224,475 positions. The cost of salaries in these organizations totaled NIS 42.74 billion in 2005, NIS 31.65 billion of which covered salaries and direct expenses. The balance comprised costs to employees, retroactive payments and retirement payments.

The average wage in 2005 for officals in public organizations, not including costs to employers, retroactive payments and retirement payments, was between NIS 12,041 in religious councils and NIS 28,930 in state-supported organizations. The average salary of high wage earners in public organizations was between NIS 16,265 in religious councils and NIS 38,991 in state-owned companies. The average salary of graded wage employees (who are not defined as senior officers) in public organizations ranged from NIS 5,563 in religious councils to NIS 16,286 in state-owned companies. By comparison, the average wage in 2005 was NIS 7,221.

The total cost of employment of officials averaged from NIS 15,380 monthly in religious councils to NIS 40,079 in government supported organizations. The cost of graded wage employees ranged from NIS 6,971 in religious councils to NIS 20,764 in state-owned companies. The cost of employing workers in the civil service included - in addition to salaries - payments to the National Insurance Institute, payments toward pension benefits, taxes for employees and payments to various funds (continuing education funds, for instance).

According to Cohen's report, wages in public organizations increased in 2005 by 2 percent in gross terms adjusted for inflation. On the other hand, the number of positions in these organizations fell by 0.63 percent - 1,403 positions. Most of the decrease took place in local authorities: 838 positions, or nearly 1 percent of their manpower.

A separate column titled "gross paid salary" was dedicated to employees of the Bank of Israel and HMO Clalit in the 2005 wage report. For the Bank of Israel, the figures include special payments to employees for vacation days, illnesses and continuing education funds. For Clalit, the figures include "shortened waiting list" and "non- basket" components in doctors' wages that are above and beyond regular salaries or additional employment as defined in collective agreements. These components were reported as part of gross salaries in 2004.

The data appearing in the reports is an important instrument in the formulation of the treasury's policy. It is used by the Finance Ministry as a general database, as a source of information for considering salaries in the civil service, and to examine aberrations in wage payments. The second part of the report, which discusses the activity of the enforcement department at the wages directorship in 2006, will be published next week.