Government releases findings on minimum wage

A report that was published as a result of the study highlighted the core reasons why multinationals left those countries.

According to the Minister of Gender, Labour, and Social Development, Betty Amongi, European countries where the minimum wage was passed as a policy lost quite a number of multinational companies to other countries.

“This report was analysing what drives companies to move from countries where they are located. One of them was the cost of doing business, which can include financing if you do not have cheap capital. The other aspect that made more people move is that labour is not only cheap but also skilled,” Amongi said.

These are some of the results of the ongoing stakeholder consultations launched after the government deferred all discussions relating to the minimum wage until the next course of action.

In 2015, the minimum wage bill was moved by Workers MP Arinatwe Rwakajara. The bill sought to establish a minimum wage board led by the minister that would put in place mechanisms for determining minimum wages for each sector.

Rwakajara said that the bill will address the gaps in the current Minimum Wage Advisory Board Act by providing for employee-employer-led minimum wage determination and sector-based minimum wage determination and application.

“People cannot dictate what they wish to be paid and therefore live at the mercy of their employers—something we set out to correct with this bill,” he said.

Legislators across the political divide supported the bill, saying it was long overdue for Uganda to have a minimum wage.

The bill proposed, among other things, a salary of Sh130,000 per month as the lowest pay for any worker, including housemaids in full-time employment.