Government has increased the minimum wage for protected employees that are engaged in shops and general establishments from K268, 800 to K419, 000 per month effective this month end.
Government has also allocated the retention of housing rate at 30% of the basic pay across the board.
Other allowances such as transport, lunch and subsistence have also been upwardly adjusted from the previous rates of K80,000, K70,000 and K100,000 to K102,400 as well as K120,00 and K195,00 respectively.
Labour Minister Austin Liato announced this when he addressed journalists at a press briefing in Lusaka today.
Mr. Liato noted that the MMD government through his ministry was promoting job creation on the labour market and ensuring that livelihoods of people were improved.
He said the ministry was also committed to ensuring proper management of employment and labour sector in the country in order to effectively reduce poverty among people.
Mr. Liato explained that ensuring proper management of employment and labour sector in the country was important as what happened in the sector impacted on the household, thereby affecting the attainment of basic necessities of life which could not be accessed if parents or guardians were unemployed.
He said the ministry was also aware that decent wages provided in the instruments ought not to be so high that they stifled existing business ventures or scare away new investments that the country needed much to stimulate job creation.
Mr. Liato further observed that domestic workers in the country were the most exploited and abused and his ministry has since developed regulations to administer the determination of wages to cover the domestic service sector.
He said Government was saddened by this state of affairs and would therefore ensure that domestic workers’ welfare was jealously safeguarded through the issuance of a statutory instrument to guarantee protection of their rights.
Mr. Liato said some of the provisions in the statutory instrument include minimum wage of K200, 000 per month, annual leave, separation package and transport allowance.
He said Government through his ministry would continue to ensure that the tenet of Decent Work Programme that was launched in 2007 received maximum attention.
“In addition to the statutory instruments that I have announced today, I wish to inform the nation that the amendments to the Employment Act, Cap 268 of the laws of Zambia are also expected to be passed during the next sitting of Parliament.” Mr. Liato stated.
Mr. Liato noted that his ministry would continue to raise awareness of the Labour market parties with regard to Labour laws in view of the increase in foreign investment in the economy.
Meanwhile, Mr. Liato has dispelled arguments advanced on the labour market that the new minimum wages have been issued this year due to this year being an election period.
“This is not true at all. To the contrary, the delay in publishing the statutory instruments earlier is attributed to the fact that Government had to make a lot of consultations with all key stakeholders to ensure that amicable agreement with employers and employees was reached before releasing the information to the general public.” he said.
ZANIS
Election year….lol! Thank you but still Pact 2011.
This, I like thank you!
This, I like very very much!
One Zambia, One Nation!
One Nation, One Leader!
And that Leader, Rupiah Bwezani Banda, umuyayaya Lesa apale, mwilalwala!
Chisokone, chisokone, chisokone!
Bwezani mulilo, Bwezani mulilo! Ayeaye Bwezani mulilo!
MMD mulilo, MMD mulilo! Ayeaye MMD mulilo!
Chisokone, chisokone, chisokone!
The minimum wage is still small guys…why cant you make it K7000000
No 3
If you have a business you will know that, depending on the income you have , its impossible
Pay them £100 000 if they dont want get rid of them
Our workers at my parents in zambia are paid £500 000 for 4 of them
they are very happy/
In scotand my fiance and myself we bring in about £7 500 between is per month, still that money is nothing !
Thanks
Wow, peanuts! Night owls make that in one round on northmead street corners, that explains the increase on female school leavers becoming ‘escorts’ for ‘fishmongers’ in tourist areas!!
iwe ka Mushota #4 you are so full of yourself. owez me and my fiencee -me and my fiencee. you think you are the only who is doing well. pathetic bich
Mushota , thats why you need a social capitalist model like in Norway. They call it a welfare society where there is official no poor person except drug addicts etc.
People are heavily taxed and the Government takes care of social issues.
You and your fiancée make more than 55 million kwacha and its nothing..wow life must be very costly up there… i make a net of about £4 800 here and i am basically OK…..
I pay my domestic worker about K600 000 well above the Liato limit…
The minimum wage is fair for small businesses. Some of my family members own small businesses and if the minimum wage were to be higher, they would have to lay off workers because they would fail to make profit.
I do also support transport allowance and the other allowances. Those who are not in business will easily condemn.
Mushota check your currency! “Our workers at my parents in zambia are paid £500 000 for 4 of them
they are very happy”. Very few people get that money in pounds.
Iwe ka Mushota, you work in the Old Peoples Home, you cant get that much washing old peoples behinds.
Iwe Mushota, why do u always waste your time talking about how better placed you are in society…why do you brag so much! watch your space my friend!
No 9
Thanks for pointing out a rare error. They are paid K125 000 each, 4 of them. Total is K500 000
The total that my finance and me bring in, in our flat is £7 500 AFTER tax
Hope I have cleared the small problems
I wouldnt lie why?
Whether you increase or not you are going. By the way I already pay my domestic worker K500,000. Not that GRZ has told me, but it is because I always put myself in the chaps shoes and imagine how he manages.
Whatever they have increased is nothing. it is only slightly better than the lowest poverty datum line.The best minimum wage ought to strat at K 800,000 and a reduction made to the allowances given to ministers who gobble up to K90,000,000 a month. It is too exagerated for a country like this one. K 50,000,000 off each minister per month would go along way to civil servants.
there it is one of the many ways people can benefit from the rampant investment in the country. Not increase taxes on businesses but putting money in people’s pockets. in the near future Gov should work towards creating a system where there should be a reasonable medical cover for employees, yet another way of making people benefit
Broaden TAX collection and lower the PAYE to boost spending power.
Our people needs more money in their pockets so that they could invest surplus in this economy rather than increasing foreign investors income which is NEVER reinvested locally. wacha kuwa pumbafu!!!
Mushota. Thats one of the many mistakes you have made. You mustv be living in a fanstasy world.
ma comment the min wages are welcome but this shuld have being done way back and not in an election year. the Chines investors and many of them have exploited zambians by getting huge amounts from govt contracts like in building Roads,schools, hospitals and many other projects and paid the average zambian poorly for well investing their profits back in their countries. talk of the small miines they are operating, these people are only interested in their profits and care less on the welfare of their employees. there now need be a body of govt to monitor and issue infringement notices to these thievz