Malawi Congress of Trade Union (MCTU) has proposed the upward adjustment of employees’ minimum wage from K90 000 per month to not less than K180 000, representing 100 percent increase.
In an interview on Monday, MCTU president Charles Kumchenga noted that the country’s cost of living has skyrocketed, putting low income earners at a disadvantage.
He said the union has already written the Ministry of Labour to call for a tripartite labour advisory council meeting to be held not later than May this year where an upward adjustment of the minimum wage and tax-free band will top the agenda items.
The council comprises MCTU, Employers’ Consultative Association of Malawi (Ecam) and Ministry of Labour.
Said Kumchenga: “We also want the Ministry of Trade to control prices of commodities because the cost of living has reached the terrible level. Prices of commodities continue to rise almost every day and we fear that if this continues, most Malawians will not manage to survive.”
His sentiments come a few days after Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda in his 2025/26 National Budget presentation to Parliament on Friday did not indicate whether the minimum wage and tax-free band will be revised in the 2025/26 fiscal year.
But negotiations between the Government Negotiating Team (GNT) and Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) on Thursday culminated in a 20 percent salary increase for civil servants with effect from April 1 2025.
Traditionally, the increment triggers price increases nationally.
Currently, a 50 kilogramme (kg) bag of maize is about 22 percent higher than the minimum wage as some vendors are selling it at K110 000.
A day before the 2025/26 National Budget presentation, some stakeholders, including Centre for Social Concern (CfSC) and Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) indicated that they wanted a budget that balances borrowing needs and provides tax relief to ease the cost of living.
In an interview on Monday, CfSC economic governance programme officer Agnes Nyirongo expressed disappointment that the budget did not indicate whether government will adjust upwards the minimum wage and tax-free band.
“If this will not be looked into, low income earners will be suffering a lot because prices of goods and services continue to rise. This is very disappointing to most Malawians because this is not what they were expecting,” she said.
The CfSC data shows that the average monthly cost of living for a family of six rose by 7.1 percent from K540 353 in December 2024 to K578 843 in January 2025.
Consumers Association of Malawi executive director John Kapito recently told The Nation that the majority of consumers are struggling, with those not having access to income barely surviving.
The government gazetted minimum wage is currently at K3 461.54 per day, translating to K90 000 a month.
