To curb adultery, Indonesian civil servants' salaries sent directly to their wives

Thousands of male civil servants in northern Indonesia will no longer receive paychecks. Instead, their wives will get their salaries.

The Gorontalo administration, a small province in the island of Sulawesi, recommended earlier this year that workers transfer their salaries to their wives because of increasing complaints about marital infidelity. 

Gorontalo Gov. Rusli Habibie said the policy was “imperative to promote openness between officials and their wives and thus could prevent corruption practices among Gorontalo civil servants,” according to the Jakarta Post.

“Men are usually unable to control their behavior if they have too much money in their pocket,” administration spokesperson Rifly Katili said.

According to Katili, more than 90% of the 3,200 civil servants in Gorontalo support the policy and voluntarily transferred their salaries to their wives when the government first suggested the idea.

“I’m pretty sure this will eliminate the possibility of love affairs that undermine families,” Katili added.

Some employees were nonchalant about the new requirement.