Ghana’s new minimum daily wage is just $1 don’t be excited

Ghana’s new minimum daily wage is just $1 don’t be excited because that minimum wage looks very annoying if you understand what it means.

The minimum daily wage for Ghana has been increased effective January 2023, however, the new minimum daily wage is just $1. In dollar terms using the open market rate, the minimum wage is 14.88 ($1.06) per day.

The politicians increasing your daily minimum wage earn so much in diverse ways per their position in government hence they will still be better off irrespective of whether they increase your daily minimum wage by some close to GHS2.00. What an insult.

In announcing the new minimum wage, the committee in charge said…

“The effective date for the implementation of the 2023 national daily minimum wage shall be 1st January 2023.

Ghanaians have been made to believe that, the current economic hardships being experienced are widespread globally. The prices of fuel and fuel products in Ghana continue to inch upward at the same time, and the necessities of life including food and the general prices of goods have gone up, yet the wages paid to Ghanaian workers do not come near decent wage descriptions.

The new daily minimum wage to be implemented in January 2023 cannot even buy a litre of petrol today and by the time it is implemented, its relevance will be lost because the prices of goods and services will not stagnate now.

France pays a National minimum wage per hour rate of $10.71 which translates to an approximated value of GHS160.00 per hour. Thus, someone who works 8 hours in France will earn GHS1,285.2 a day if he or she was in Ghana.

This amount is higher than the daily income of many Ghanaian workers, even if the new minimum wage is applied.

Ghana’s minimum wage is just 9.89% of what someone earns a day in France, hence do not be excited about the less than GHS2.00 increase in the minimum wage.

The above calculation also shows that what someone earns in France a day for working 8 hours is another person’s two months’ earnings in Ghana.

If the current economic woes we face as a nation are only a result of the global challenges and the associated war in Ukraine that the Ghana government uses as reasons for the current mess they have plunged the country into, then the peanut increase in the minimum wage should be that minimum wage is doubled to reflect the realities we face today. Food prices alone have gone up by at least 122% and so, why not double the 2022 minimum wage as the new minimum wage for 2023?

Now in the UK, workers are paid $11.43 per hour, in Germany, it is $10.59 per hour but in our beloved country where we have all the natural resources, Galamsey, corrupt and insensitive leadership our minimum wages is an insulting GHC: 14.88 ($1.06) per day.

If you, my readers, think I am comparing eggs to pebbles that look like little eggs picked from the riverside, then let us compare the new minimum wage of Ghana to other countries even in Africa.

Nigeria’s current minimum wage is $3.39 (GHS50.44) and that of Ghana GHC: 14.88 ($1.06) is just 31.26% of what the lowest-paid Nigerian earns in a day.

Côte d’Ivoire pays a minimum wage of $2.89 (GHS43.00). The daily minimum wage in Ghana is only 36.67% of what is paid to a worker in Côte d’Ivoire. Let us not go far, in Togo, their minimum daily wage is $2.761 (GHS41.08) which is again more than that of Ghana by GHS26.20.

Ghanaians are suffering, and the Ghanaian worker is in a super suffering mode. For some workers today, nearly 65% of their income goes into taking care of their transportation costs to work, leaving nothing or near zero income for other important needs of life. The least income needed by Ghanaians to survive the onslaught of our self-aggravated economic hardship is to double the daily minimum wage.

READ: Minimum wage increased from GH¢13.53 to GH¢14.88 effective Jan 2023

God SAVE our GHANA because transportation costs incurred just to get to work coupled with high food prices and a daily loss in value effects on the Ghana cedi means that, the new minimum wage announced has been eroded long ago. If Nigeria, Togo, and Côte d’Ivoire are paying more daily minimum wage than Ghana, we deserve better as workers in Ghana. Ghanaians deserve better, a minimum daily wage of $2.00 will be the ideal situation, anything below now is just funny.

Ghana’s new minimum daily wage is just $1, are you now excited or depressed to know the reality? Ghanaian deserve much better than the $1 minimum daily wage in this economic mess our politicians without leadership have led us into.

Source: Wisdom Hammond