04 Dec 2023

Government is still working on setting a new minimum wage, and an announcement on the decision will be made soon. Speaking in Parliament on Friday, the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Ms Annah Mokgethi said the announcement would be made before the end of the current Parliament session after December 10.

"The announcement could have been made by now. There were some delays but we are working on it," she said. She said this was in an effort to respond to the pleas of Batswana in relation to the issue of inflation and the high cost of living experienced due to issues like the Russia/Ukraine war and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms Mokgethi also admitted that it was an anomaly that the private sector did not have a bargaining council like it was the case with the civil service.

"We intend to address this anomaly through the review of the labour laws. Very soon I will be bringing the Employment and Labour Bil before Parliament," she said. Concerning the minimum wage, Ms Mokgethi said it was set by the Minimum Wage Advisory Board after considering a host of factors such as food consumer index price, inflation, social safety nets, affordability, sustainability and the cost of living index among others.

She said the decisions of the board were an outcome of extensive dialogue and consensus by the tripartite and other members who were mandated to represent their organisations. Ms Mokgethi further indicated that the board members were from various fields such as law, human resources, industrial relations, economics, public administrators and trade unionists among others.

Ms Mokgethi said the current board consisted of three members from each category represented in the board. She said that the Act also provided for alternative members in respect of each substantive member and that they have also been appointed accordingly.

Ms Mokgethi was addressing concerns by Lobatse legislator, Dr Thapelo Matsheka who wanted to know the factors considered in setting minimum wage.

Dr Matsheka also enquired on whether the level of the minimum wage compensated for the cost of living and whether average income was considered compensatory compared to the per Capita income of the country.

Dr Matsheka also enquired about the membership of the Minimum Wage Committee and its competency skills. He said in comparison with neighbouring South Africa, the two countries were almost at par in many economic aspects, although South Africa paid a much higher minimum wage. "Our per capita income is around P70 000 while that of South Africa is about P60 000.

On income average, Botswana stands at P11 700 while South Africa pays an average of P25 000 despite this slight difference in per capita," he said.

Dr Matsheka further indicated that when it came to minimum wage, there was a huge disparity between Botswana and South Africa. Dr Matsheka also wondered how Botswana would compensate for the gap in income inequality, more so that it had one of the highest gini coefficients globally.

"As a country, we will have to relook our strategies, whether having a low minimum wage assists in attracting foreign investors," he said.

He said that there was no statistical support for the classical thought that a low minimum wage helped attract investors. ENDS