Real wages of workers, Jayagoda’s claim is neither current nor complete

Fact Check

In an interview with Aruna on 20 July 2026, speaking about the current economic situation, the Frontline Socialist Party Education Secretary Pubudu Jayagoda said that, according to newly released Central Bank statistics, the real value of wages had fallen by 24% by 2025 when compared with 2020.

FactCheck.lk examined the nominal and real (inflation-adjusted) wage rate indices published by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).

CBSL does not publish a single wage index covering all workers. Its regular statistical tables provide separate wage rate indices for public sector employees and informal private sector employees, and the two series do not move in the same way. Therefore, a general claim that the real value of wages had fallen by 24% would need to be supported by the latest (“newly released”) data in both series. However, it is supported by neither.

Both series show that real wages have fallen substantially from their 2020 levels. However, the extent of the decline shown by the latest data is much smaller than Jayagoda claims. By December 2025, the real wage index for public sector employees had declined by 16.1% relative to 2020, while the real wage index for informal private sector employees had declined by 11.8% (see Exhibit 1).

FactCheck.lk finds that Jayagoda’s figure of a 24% decline matches only the decline in the real wage of index for public sector employees up to the end of 2024, rather than the end of 2025. His figure therefore reflects what is shown in past data, not the newly released statistics, as stated. Even evaluating his claim for the past, wages of informal private sector employes fell by only 14.0%—much less than the figure cited.

It should also be noted that, as at the end of 2025, public sector employees accounted for only 15.2% of all employed persons. Private sector employees as a whole accounted for 45.3% of all employed persons. However, the informal private sector wage index appears to cover only daily wage workers, and neither CBSL nor the Labour Force Survey data provides their share of the total employed population.

In sum, Jayagoda’s claim of a 24% decline is accurate only for the public sector real wage index up to the end of 2024—not for the latest data, as claimed, and not for workers in general. Moreover, by the end of 2025, the available data on real wages shows declines of a much smaller magnitude than claimed  (16.1% and 11.8%).

Therefore, we classify this statement as FALSE.

*FactCheck.lk’s verdict is based on the most recent information that is publicly accessible. As with every fact check, FactCheck.lk will revisit the assessment if new information becomes available.

Exhibit 1: Public sector and informal private sector wage rate indices, December 2019 to December 2025