Minimum Wage Introduced To Maldives

In a ceremony held today, Economic Minister, Fayyaz Ismail Introduces minimum wage to the country. Based on the internationally best practice approach, the ideal national wage for the Maldives is MVR 5,000. Board recommended to increase it because the retirement pension amount is equivalent to MVR 5,000 as well. However, the ministry believes that it will not be an issue as a large proportion of the working population is youth. Therefor, minimum wage for small businesses is MVR 4,500.

Minimum wage set for medium businesses is MVR 7,000. For large business, the amount was calculated based on a need-based approach, which makes it an ideal living wage. However, in-depth analysis on wage costs of large employers shows that it will be challenging for businesses to absorb a very high wage cost during the post-pandemic recovery. Also, state owned enterprises take a large brunt of the cost and are heavily subsidized, in which the burden will have to be taken by the tax payers. Hence, ministry has concluded the minimum wage for large businesses to be MVR 8,000.