Salary delays among public sector primary care workers: evidence from facility surveys across 16 low- and middle-income countries

Salary delays are prevalent among public primary healthcare workers in resource-poor settings, affecting vulnerable groups and associated with negative worker outcomes. Addressing delays requires diagnosing bottlenecks across administrative tiers, improving cash-to-payroll execution and allocating resources equitably to settings and worker groups where delays are most concentrated. Future work should examine payment processes across administrative levels and incorporate routine measurement of salary timeliness to support accountability and inform targeted strategies to reduce delays.