Employers Consultative Association of Malawi (Ecam) and the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) are divided in opinion on measures employed by the government in the 2024-25 national budget to cushion Malawians from the rising cost of living.
Among other things, the government set aside K70 billion for general salary increment for civil servants and increased the zero Pay as You Earn (Paye) bracket from K100,000 to K150,000.
However, a recent Basic Needs Basket for a family of six published by the Centre for Social Concern indicates that the average cost of living between December 2023 and January 2024 increased by 7.8 percent, from K455,707 to K491,037 in January 2024.
According to the information, Blantyre emerged as the most expensive city with a cost of living of K564, 524 followed by Zomba at K522, 377.
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Ecam Executive Director George Khaki said employers were comfortable with the proposals.
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“Most of the inputs that were proposed to the government were taken into account, one of which is sectoralisation of the minimum wage.
“We are also happy with increasing the minimum wage because we know that with the rates of inflation that the country is experiencing at the moment, it means that disposable incomes of workers have been affected quite much and, therefore, if we combine the raise in the wages as well as the increase in this threshold, workers have disposable income that they can use in helping their families,” Khaki said.
But in a separate interview, MCTU President Charles Kumchenga said the measures employed are not enough and that they have already started discussing with the government on salary increment.
“The discussions are still underway and the government proposed the K70 billion as the path of salary increment. We said ‘no’ to that because, in translation, that means the average percentage was about 6 to 7 percent. So, from the 44 percent devaluation, the government is giving us 6 to 7 percent, which does not match.
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“We are expecting to meet again, possibly this week, so that we can continue our discussions. We are saying ‘let’s just convert everything into percentage’. So, what we are looking for is to get not less than 25 percent but 65 percent is our starting point,” Kumchenga said.
