A lot of water has passed under the bridge over the minimum wage of Rwf100 per day that is embedded in the law. The arguments are very emotional wondering how someone could survive if the wage cap was implemented.

Luckily, no one earns that little, the market made its own adjustments without waiting for government directives. The lowest, e.g. among unskilled construction workers, usually revolves around Rwf2,000 per day, which in today’s economic hardships will not go far.

If the amount goes to cater for a family of four, they are living way below the poverty level.

Before 1994, a graduate earned around Rwf13,000 per month, about four times what the unskilled worker (Rwf100/day) earned. If one takes into consideration that in 1980, when the exchange rate of the Rwandan franc to the dollar was Rwf86, the unskilled worker was earning about the same today.

But not every low earner is as lucky as the unskilled construction worker, especially domestic workers, some of who earn as low as Rwf5,000 a month. That is the kind of exploitation that needs to be addressed.

Those low earners have no safety net; no social security, no medical cover. The last time any legislation was drafted on the matter was in 2009 (law N° 13/2009 of May 27, 2009 regulating labour in Rwanda). It had then decided that the minimum wage would be determined by a Ministerial Order.

Nine years down the road, no order has come from the ministry. That is where the issue is, not the Rwf100 per day that is still in force, even though it is just in words only. Why does it take a decade without a workable minimum wage in place? Negligence?

Now parliament has passed a new labour law and has again given the minister the prerogative to set the minimum wage. It is in everyone’s interest that the issue is addressed once and for all without forgetting regular adjustments to go in tandem with the cost of living.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw