Iranian nurses in hospitals and care homes across the country have received another 50 percent pay rise amid various support schemes introduced by authorities to help the healthcare system cope with surging number of coronavirus patients.
Kamel Taghavinejad, a deputy health minister, announced the pay rises on Sunday which coincided with the National Day of Nurse in Iran.
Taghavinejad said that wages of Iranian nurses had increased for a first time during the pandemic in March when the country reported first cases of the virus.
He said with the two pay hikes implemented, nominal nursing wages would double to a range between 70 million rials ($280) per months for new recruits to 100 million rials ($400) for more experienced staff. Nurses would be compensated for extra work related to the pandemic by nearly 25 percent of their wages, he said.
Iran has significantly increased funding for the health sector this year as it battles one of harshest outbreaks of the disease in the Middle East.
The government has authorized some 52,000 new recruitments in the sector with more than half of the vacancies allocated to nurses.
Taghavinejad said that over 35,000 new nurses would be employed by the government as part of the new recruitment drive in the health sector.