Who sets minimum wage?

Who is responsible to set minimum wages for employees in the country? Should minimum wages be universal for all employees regardless of industry, whether house workers or employees in a manufacturing or construction industry? Should they have equal minimum wages? What about workloads? Does it matter how much workloads are there in a particular employment? What other factors should be considered in deciding the wages on the Minister of Labour. The Act gives the minister people who shall assist in setting the minimum wages—”organisations of workers and employers.”

In this provision, it does not mean that the workers’ and employers’ organisations do are the ones responsible for deciding the figures, but are there only required to be consulted.

Therefore, it was very amazing to me on 11 October morning Ministry of Labour official Linda Kawamba told MBC Radio 1 in an interview that such consultations indeed took place but the two organisations representing workers and employers did not agree on one thing.

Kawamba further stated that the Ministry of Labour is only there to witness. This means that the ministry has shelved powers given to it by the Employment Act to the stakeholders’ organisations and only gazettes their decisions.

Are we then as a nation surprised when we have frequent strikes for wages in the work places? The likelihood is that employers’ organisations will be resistant to raise minimum wages and this is what actually happens among many employer organisations.

What about making minimum wage universal, does it have any legal backing. No. In section54 (1), the Act stipulates that “…..if he [the minister] is of the opinion that it is expedient to fix the minimum wages of any group of wage earners …” This shows it does not have to be the whole country. This means we can have minimum wages at different levels like those working in merchandise shops different from those from road construction, and also different from those caring for goats or cattle.

Section 54 (3b) on “levels of productivity and any effect the wage might have on employment” shows that even workloads are to be considered in setting minimum wages

In this regard, the productivity of an employee and wages in a construction industry who will have a foreman at his/her back chasing him all day off-loading bags of cement from morning to evening will have a different effect on his/her employment as compared to a house worker who has himself or herself with their conscience to control them. Is it not immoral to set the minimum wage of these two groups of workers equal?

If the minimum wage for an employee in a construction industry with all the harsh conditions that they face is K317 per day, translating into K8 242 per month (taking that most construction companies do not pay for Sundays), it is doubtful that the minister did look at the needs of the employees for food, rent for accommodation, school fees for children and other needs. Probably, this part of the section should be properly interpreted to the minster before he/she embarks on the minimum wages.

Therefore, my advice is that officials in the Ministry of Labour should make themselves conversant with the provisions of the Employment Act because they are failing the minister and employees in their duties.

It would also be important that when setting minimum wages, the minister should first go at the workplace and see what the wage earner performs to deserve a particular minimum wage.

The task of setting minimum wage should not be left to organisations representing employers and employees as Linda Kawamba indicated in the interview.

—The author is a retired army officer experienced Human Resources Practitioner.