UPDATED: 10:07am – The new national minimum wage of two dollars and sixty-eight cents per hour will come into effect next month.
Employment Minister Jone Usamate says with all the work completed, the ministry now waits for approval from the Solicitor General’s office before its implemented.
”We have a national minimum wage that sits the absolute minimum at which anybody can be employed. But over and above the minimum wage, we have ten wage regulation orders in different sectors. So you have the national minimum wage the very minimum and than in each of these ten sectors we have new wage regulation orders revised slightly.”
The national minimum wage applies to all workers in the informal sector such as house girls, caregivers, backyard garage workers, to name a few but it also co-exists with the ten sectoral wage regulations.
”In the different sectors in which we have the wage regulation orders, this includes building and civil engineering, trade, hotel and catering, manufacturing, mining, printing, sawmill and logging, security, wholesale and retail and garment industry. In all of those sectors we have a minimum wage and condition which is above the national minimum wage.”
The Minister clarified as of next month, no one will be paid less than two dollars sixty eight cents per hour unless the person is a trainee.
The revised wage regulation orders will also come into effect from September.
-FBC
