Minimum wage; a law on paper

The National Tripartite Committee announced a new wage of GHS9.68 from the current GHS8.80 which is due to take effect in January 2018.

They were quoted as saying “Any establishment, institution or organisation that flouts the new rate shall be sanctioned in accordance with law."

As a concerned citizen of mother Ghana, I was intrigued with the information from the ministry concerning the increase in the minimum wage of workers by 10%.

This is a laudable move from the Nana Addo led government and they deserve praise for that, but my major concerns are, would it be enforced in the private sector? What measures have been put in place to ensure compliance from private sector employers? Would the 10% rise really achieve its purpose of improving standard of living?

These major questions kept popping on my mind. In most cases, the major set back to good government policies because it is not well enforced within the private sector. These problems emanate from but not limited to the following.

One key set back to this policy is due to the fact that, The minimum wage is often meant for only public and civil servants only as a result of that ascertion the private sector are not involved or in most cases sidelined when coming out with policies that affects all and sundry.

As a result well meaning citizens of the country who are mostly employed under the private sector goes through a lot of frustrations and working under-pay since the private sector now serves as a major employment avenue where a chunk of Ghanaians are employed since as a result of the freeze on employment within the public sector.

I am aware of a graduate from one of the country's polytechnics now technical university who works as an Accountant in a financial consultancy firm in Accra receives a meagre GHC300 monthly salary which is way below the minimum wage stipulated for workers even with the old rate .

This menace could be curtailed if the private sector (industrial players) are actively involved in policy making processes.

Also, the government needs to create a conducive atmosphere for private sector to flourish, when this occurs they are left with no option than to increase the salary of their workers.

Because, it is often the habit of private employees to shift blame to government as the primary cause of their inability to offer higher wages to their respective workers due to the unfriendly atmosphere for their businesses to flourish as they face a mojor setback in terms of finance due to higher taxes and duties charged on their operations and imported raw materials respectively.

In sum, we cannot advance as a nation if we tend to blindly follow narrow political colorations. Anyway, let us not think more of the increament than it is necessary; for hope are those who believe but have not yet seen.