Mozambique: New minimum wages will be set this month

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Mozambique: New minimum wages will be set this month

6:51 CAT | 05 Aug 2025

Photo: AIM

Mozambique’s Labour Consultative Council (CCT) began a meeting in Maputo on Monday, which is intended to set this year’s minimum wages.

The CCT is a tripartite negotiating forum between the government, the trade unions and the employers’ associations. Its main task is to negotiate the statutory minimum wages that will be in force for the next year.

There is no longer a single minimum wage. The minimum wage is negotiated sector by sector. Currently, there are 18 sectors and sub-sectors of economic activity, each with their own minimum wage.

Before the start of the Monday meeting, the country’s main trade union federation, the OTM (Mozambican Workers’ Organisation) declared it considered that 42,000 meticais a month (656 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) would be a reasonable minimum wage.

But there is not the slightest chance that the employers will accept this figure. None of the current 18 minimum wages come anywhere near 42,000 meticais a month.

The highest minimum wage, for workers in banks and insurance companies, is 17,881 meticais a month. The lowest, for workers in the kapenta fishing industry, on Cahora Bassa lake, in Tete province, is just 4,942 meticais a month.

The CCT should have discussed the minimum wage in April. But, under pressure from the employers, the negotiations were postponed to August. The excuse for this postponement was the post-election unrest.

The fraud in the October general elections led to demonstrations, which often degenerated into violence and rioting, shutting down many workplaces, and throwing workers out of their jobs.

It is not known how long the negotiations will take. If past practice is used as a precedent, the new minimum wages will be backdated to 1 April.

Source: AIM