Ministry Surfaces Minimum Wage, Unemployment Benefit Bills

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has finalized the crafting of a regulation that introduces minimum wage in the labor market in Ethiopia, in a bid to reinforce low incomers. A board of 40 members will be established to set minimum wage in proportion to accommodate inflation.

“For instance, employees in industrial parks are paid very small compensation that does not consider the rising cost of living. we have been late to introduce minimum wage in Ethiopia, because the cheap labor is one of Ethiopia’s competitive advantage to attract FDI to Ethiopia. Minimum wage will be introduced soon after the board is established, both for public and private employees. We also included unemployment benefit in our new social security policy,” Dejene Bekele, Employment and Labor Market director at MoLSA, told EBR.