EXPERT SAYS THE NEWLY IMPLEMENTED MINIMUM WAGE FOR DOMESTIC AND GENERAL WORKERS ARE INCORRECT

By Michael Kaluba

Social and Political Anthropologist Dr. James Musonda says there is a mismatch between the newly implemented minimum wage for domestic and general workers and salaries of unionized workers who employ them.

Dr. Musonda notes that while the new minimum wage is good, it is thoughtless if unionized workers, who are the major employers of the said beneficiary workers, still get an average salary of about K4000 and can only be sustained alongside a unilateral doubling of wages for unionized workers.

He tells Phoenix News that the new dawn administration seems to mean well but decisions such as this one are uninformed, baseless, and reckless as they sort out one problem while creating another.

Dr. Musonda adds that employers of people who benefit from the minimum wage are largely employed by unionized workers who are underpaid and wonders how an employee should equal the employer’s earnings and whether this will see people remain in employment.

Effective this month, government has revised the minimum wages for domestic workers, shopkeepers, and general workers from K993.60 to K1,300, K2, 722.57 from K1, 994.40 and K2,313.10 from K1,698.60 respectively.

PHOENIX NEWS