THE National Tripartite Committee (NTC) last Friday announced a new minimum wage which is an 18 per cent upward adjustment of the old one. The current minimum wage is GH¢2.65, as against the previous GH¢2.25.
The Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao, was quoted as having said after the announcement that the government had been keen to see to it that workers earned a wage that was an improvement on what they were earning previously.
For some time now public sector wage administration has posed a big challenge to all the partners in the NTC. In some instances, certain organisations have not been able to pay the new minimum wage after very hard bargains, citing their inability to pay as a factor.
Already, some labour centres have described the new minimum wage as inadequate, in view of the current global economic crisis.
Before the conclusion of discussions on the new minimum wage, there had been long agitation among workers who demanded improved salaries and wages, as well as other conditions of service. The point at issue was the effective implementation of a single spine salary structure without causing distortions in existing conditions of service.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is aware of the challenges confronting our national economy and the sacrifices that have been made by the government, employers and unionised labour in arriving at the new minimum wage.
Even if the new package for workers cannot take them home, it is a major step by the social partners to ensure that workers have value for their labour.
Another area that must be of concern now relates to how to increase productivity, for productivity and wages cannot be said to be mutually exclusive because improvement in either of them can stimulate growth in the other.
In some of the so-called Asian Tigers, especially Singapore, their leaders, at certain stages, established productivity movements as a way of promoting increased productivity in all sectors of the economy.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that the time has come for the government, employers and organised labour to put their heads together to find ways to motivate workers to increase productivity.
We are of the view that it is only by increasing productivity that any organisation can generate the necessary resources to share among its workers.
This problem of working out the appropriate synergy between productivity and wages has been an age-old one, just like the chicken and the egg situation, which has become a difficult puzzle to resolve in order to determine which of the two must take centre stage.
But until answers are found, we urge all the social partners to demonstrate commitment to the new minimum wage to avoid the situation where “employers pretend to be paying, while workers pretend to be working”.
Now is the time to chart a new path so that the social partners will enforce the payment of the minimum wage to all workers.
In fact, it is criminal for some employers to pay below the minimum wage at a time when we all acknowledge that the minimum wage is far below what will make workers sustain themselves and their dependants.
And since the minimum wage is backed by law, organised labour and the government should team up to prosecute those who breach the agreement on it.
The DAILY GRAPHIC urges all workers to reciprocate this latest gesture by the social partners by working hard, while steps are put in place to iron out other grievances confronting the working class.
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