Cabinet has endorsed the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation (MLIREC), to introduce a National Minimum Wage (NMW) of N$18 per hour, effective January 2025.
The announcement was made on Sunday by MLIREC executive director, Lydia Indombo.
Indombo added that the NMW will be subject to a review two years after implementation.
In February 2021, minister Utoni Nujoma, appointed a Wages Commission to conduct a nationwide investigation in all industries and make recommendations for the proposed NMW.
This was going to apply to all employees, except related categories of employees who are exempted by the ministry’s wage order, and on related supplementary wage conditions of employment.
“The introduction of NMW does not replace the bargaining power as it aims to set a floor wage, especially for lower-paid employees.
It is prohibited for employers to reduce the wages of their employees and therefore employers who are currently paying more than the anticipated NNW, must not reduce the salaries of their workers to N$18 per hour. The NMW is barely minimum and not a ceiling wage,” Indombo warned.
Indombo stated that the NMW will be phased in incrementally for over a period of three years for domestic workers.
This means in the first year they will be paid N$12.02 per hour followed up by N$15.01 per hour in the second year and subsequently N$18 per hour in the third year.
Currently, domestic workers are paid N$9.03 per hour as per the wage order of domestic workers.
Meanwhile, employees in the agriculture sector who are paid a minimum of N$6 per hour plus pay in-kind as per the collective agreement, will be paid N$10 per hour in the first year, N$14 per hour in the second year and N$18 per hour in the third year, exclusive of in-kind payments.
A detailed notice of a government gazette will be issued in July.
Once implemented, Indombo believes that the NMW will improve the living standard of lower-paid workers, reduce income inequality, and alleviate poverty, thereby improving individual and household income.
Report by: Martin Endjala.
