Labour Relations (Specification of Minimum Wages) (Amendment) Notice, 2024 (No. 17)

The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare has replaced the minimum wage schedule in the 1996 Labour Relations (Specification of Minimum Wages) Notice. The new figure is $150,00 per month for all employees whose pay is not fixed by a collective bargaining agreement, determination or regulations made under the Labour Act.

This is the residual minimum wage. It catches workers in sectors with no National Employment Council agreement covering them. If your industry has an NEC-set wage, that wage still governs and this figure does not apply to you.

There is back pay. Where an employee was paid less than the prescribed wage from the date this notice commences, the employer must pay the difference no later than two months after that date.

The notice carries an explanatory note that employers in agriculture and employers of domestic workers are exempted from paying minimum wages — a significant carve-out covering two of the largest low-wage workforces in the country.

Two caveats. The schedule prints the figure as "$150,00" without naming the currency; the instrument does not say whether that is ZiG or US dollars, and readers should confirm before applying it. The notice also refers to the Schedule "as substituted by section 3", but the notice has only two sections — the substitution is done by section 2. That looks like a drafting slip rather than a missing provision.