2 May 2008
editorial
The Labour Day celebrations at Nairobi's Uhuru Park on Thursday ended on an abrupt note when workers jeered and walked away on realising there would be no minimum wage increase.
To his credit, President Kibaki was right in standing firm and telling workers the reality of the situation.
The problem is that these are the same workers who year after year have seen their wages eroded by inflation, while the earnings of those in positions of responsibility rise to stratospheric levels.
The issue of whether there should be a prescribed minimum wage at all has already become a subject of debate, with employers at the forefront of lobbying to have the guidelines scrapped. But wage levels can only be set to what the economy can sustain and any increases must be tied to growth.
But we live in a society where the advantages of cheap labour are always trumpeted as an incentive to attract investments, but those who make the decisions will always ensure they pay themselves very competitive salaries.
Perhaps, rather than workers ever expecting annual increases in minimum wages and employees agitating for scrapping of the guidelines, we should be looking towards a system that ensures just pay for all.
The wage differentials, whether in the private sector or in public service, contribute substantially to making Kenya one of the most unequal societies in the world.
Development cannot be sustainable where what a small elite earns compares favourably to their counterparts in developed and far wealthier countries, yet lowly workers are condemned to slave labour scales.
If the criminal divide in Kenya between rich and poor is to be bridged, than that must start at the level where the gap in remuneration is reasonable.
But even those are measures that do yet take into account the plight of the vast masses that are unemployed or under-employed. It is the responsibility of the government to put in place policies that will lead to rapid decrease in unemployment.
What we have seen in this regard over the last five year is more lip-service and suspicious statistics rather than massive investment in job creation.
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