Mozambique: How wage increases have fallen in the last five years – Carta

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Mozambique: How wage increases have fallen in the last five years – Carta

8:52 CAT | 01 Sep 2021

File photo: Lusa

Minimum wage increases have, in general, tended to fall since 2016.

An analysis carried out by ‘Carta’ shows that, from 2016 to 2017, state and private companies increased minimum wages by an average of 817 meticais.

Between 2017 and 2018, however, based on the 16 sectors analysed, the average increase was only 650 meticais.

In the following year (2018 to 2019), the trend continued, the average increase falling to 463.4 meticais.

Between 2019 and 2021, the situation deteriorated further, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, among other crises the country has been facing. The average readjustment for the 15 sectors analysed was 377.7 meticais.

Some sectors bucked the general downward trend. Minimum wage increases in banks and insurance companies rose from 8,750 meticais in 2016 to 13,409.18 meticais in 2021, an accumulated increase of 4,659.18 meticais.

Also of note is the mining industry (large companies) sector, in which the minimum wage went from 6,213.67 meticais (in 2016) to 9,846.89 meticais in 2021, an increase (in five years) of 3,633.22 meticais.

The highlight of the sectors that increased wages the most in recent years goes to microfinance, which raised minimum wages from 8,400.00 meticais in 2016 to 11,913.93 meticais in 2021, an increase of 3,513.00 meticais.

However, there are sectors that readjusted less compared to the three mentioned above. The focus is on kapenta fishing which, in the last five years, amassed 1,026.68 meticais of accumulated readjustment, having risen from 3,375.00 meticais of minimum wage in 2016 to 4,401.68 meticais in 2021.

In the hotel industry, accumulated wage readjustment in the last four years stood at 1,250.00 meticais. This minimum wage went from 5,328.00 meticais in 2017 (we did not obtain data from 2016), to 6,578.00 meticais in 2021.

Finally, in the agriculture, livestock, hunting and forestry sector, the accumulated readjustment reached 1,531.00 meticais, the minimum wage rising from 3,298.00 meticais in 2016 to 4,829.00 meticais in 2021.

While wage increases tended to fall in general, the cost of living continued to soar, further burdening the vast majority of families stifled by the country’s unfavourable economic situation in recent years.

By Evaristo Chilingue

Source: Carta de Moçambique