Sierra Leone raises Minimum Wage to SLL 500,000 ($115)
The Government of Sierra Leone has raised the monthly minimum wage for workers to SLL 500, 000 (roughly $115). This is a 2280% increase from what it used to be. The Minister of Labour and Social Security, Mathew Timbo said that the new minimum wage for all employees will go into effect on January 1 2015.
Before this change the minimum wage was 21, 000 ($5.75) per month. This rate was set 15 years ago when The Minimum Wage Act was gazetted in parliament in March 1997 under the Presidency of the late Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
This should increase the per day earnings for the employed Sierra Leonean from less than a dollar a day to about $3.3 a much needed improvement if government can enforce violators. Sierra Leone and Nigeria will have same minimum wage per month once this goes into effect while Ghana lags behind.
The Minimum Wage in Nigeria is 18,000 Naira ($115) Ghana GHS 6.00 per day x 30 days is GHC 180 ($56). Guinea’s set minimum wage of 440,000 GNF ($63.36) only applies domestic workers. Source: Wikipedia
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Well done to the Minister of Labour but where is the productivity figures to support this massive increase. What this Government should be focusing on should be prices that seems to be rising at exponential rates. Anyone can bring in goods and charge what they feel like. If you run an economy that is so laissez faire that it give an ugly face to capitalism.
Can we hear the arguments for this unemployment charter that has been cloaked as a wage increase, the workers may like it but it hides untold miseries that is yet to be felt.
The Government i believe is the largest employer and needs to look hard at its current account spending and keep a hold on its expenditures. We need fiscal discipline that keeps an eye on inflation.
Our social economy is poor with a majority of the population having no assets or savings and depend on daily hustling for a living. What we are likely to see following the implementation of this increase is a rise in price of housing, imported goods and general living expenses. It will create a vicious cycle that gyrates out of control into a near catastrophe.
Good intentions but bad consequences.