Workers want 50% but Gov't can afford 20%

As President John Agyekum Kufuor spends his 72nd day in office today, Monday, March 19, his team of advisors will be planning a strategy to deal with the next crucial issue that will confront the administration, reports the Dispatch.

Credible reports reaching The Dispatch indicate that whilst the workers' front will be eyeing a 50% increase in the daily minimum wage, the government's negotiating level is at 20%. A 35% increase appears a compromise. Whether members of the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) can afford to pay that much is another issue.

The current legal daily minimum wage is 4,200 cedis (about 60 US cents) and a 20% increase would send it to 5,040 cedis, a 50% increase to 6,300 cedis with the possible compromise 35% fixing the daily wage at 5,700 cedis. Economic analysts have pointed out that fixing the daily minimum wage is one aspect of improving the lives of the average worker but its enforcement is also another matter.

An executive of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) told the paper that "governments have failed to enforce the basic minimum wage and as we speak now, there are money workers, especially those in the private sector, who earn far less than the approved 4,200 cedis daily minimum wage."

Reacting to the Trade Unionist's assertion, an employer went on the defensive saying; "it is not our fault. Our operating costs keep mounting - electricity, water, fuel as against a dwindling market. Many Ghanaians do not have money to spend and an alternative will be to dismiss some workers and use the savings to top up the wages of the remaining ones."