If Resort Jobs Lose Their Appeal, Who Will Employ Maldivians?

A resort salary has to compensate for more than the hours worked. For a Maldivian taking a job on an island away from home, it must also justify the distance, the demanding shifts and a daily life organised around other people’s holidays. Dollar earnings can make that calculation easier. Remove them, without preserving their practical value, and the same job can become a less attractive proposition.

That is the employment question beneath the Maldives’ latest foreign currency dispute. The Government wants more tourism dollars flowing through banks. Resort operators say the new requirements place pressure on their finances. Employees are worried that their pay will become the easiest place to make an adjustment.

The consequences could extend well beyond resort payrolls. If tourism loses part of its appeal to Maldivian workers, pressure will grow on the Government to provide alternatives, adding another employment problem to a state already carrying a large share of the responsibility for local jobs.

The concern has already produced a collective response. According to the Tourism Employees Association of Maldives (TEAM), workers from 42 resorts signed its petition against ending dollar salaries within the campaign’s first 24 hours. The petition followed MMA Governor Ahmed Munawwar’s announcement of a target to move domestic transactions to rufiyaa and end foreign currency salary payments by 2030. An implementation timetable was not provided. 

That longer-term ambition must be distinguished from the law now in force. The first amendment to the Foreign Currency Act, ratified on 31 August and effective from 1 September, requires Category A establishments, including resorts, to convert 40 per cent of monthly gross foreign currency sales through banks. It removes the USD 500-per-tourist alternative and requires conversion by the 28th of the following month. 

The amendment does not ban dollar salaries. The MMA has clarified that the existing exception allowing foreign currency earners to pay employees’ salaries and benefits in foreign currency remains unchanged. President Dr Mohamed Muizzu has also said the legislation must not be used as an excuse to reduce or withhold wages from employees paid in dollars. 

Nevertheless, a rule can influence employment practices without explicitly ordering a salary change. A resort required to exchange more of its revenue will hold more rufiyaa and retain fewer dollars from those receipts. Paying local expenses in rufiyaa may consequently become more attractive to management, even while employees attach considerable value to receiving dollars directly.

The Maldives Association of Tourism Industry has argued that the 40 per cent requirement is unviable because resorts already meet substantial dollar obligations, including fuel, supplies, taxes and foreign loans. These concerns deserve scrutiny. They also expose the question that matters to workers: how much of the adjustment will employers expect staff to absorb? 

For an employee, receiving the official rufiyaa equivalent of a dollar salary can leave an important problem unresolved. The amount may have the same value at the official exchange rate, but the worker may be unable to buy back the dollars when an overseas payment falls due. Where bank access is restricted, obtaining foreign currency can involve additional expense and uncertainty.

This matters for savings, education, medical expenses and other spending abroad. It does not mean every employee loses the same amount, or that every dollar earned would otherwise have been sold on the black market. The effect depends on the worker’s needs and the foreign currency actually available through banks. The distinction is between a conversion on paper and money that remains equally useful in practice.

TEAM has made that distinction central to its position. The union has said it would oppose converting dollar salaries and service charges into rufiyaa unless workers could obtain dollars through banks at the official exchange rate. Its demand makes reliable bank access a practical test of whether a change in payment currency would leave employees worse off. 

The recruitment implications become clearer when currency is considered alongside the conditions of resort work. A 2023 Maldives National University study, based on interviews with managers from 12 resorts, identified geography, proximity to home and personal responsibilities among the obstacles to local recruitment. It also highlighted skills gaps and the need for better transport and working arrangements. These difficulties existed well before the latest currency amendment. 

Dollar earnings do not erase those difficulties, but they can help make the trade-off worthwhile. If workers feel the financial advantage narrowing, employers will have to offer other reasons to stay. Accommodation, meals, training and promotion prospects all matter. Their value, however, cannot simply be assumed to outweigh reduced financial flexibility for every employee.

The first effects might emerge quietly: fewer applications, rejected offers or experienced staff deciding against another contract. A young Maldivian choosing a career may never enter tourism in the first place. The petition demonstrates concern, but it does not establish a wave of resignations caused by the new law. The employment risk is credible; its scale has yet to be measured.

That uncertainty makes the existing employment structure particularly relevant. The Maldives Bureau of Statistics’ Labour Force Survey for October 2024 to September 2025 found that state institutions employed 53.3 per cent of working Maldivians in Malé. The category includes government bodies, independent institutions, the judiciary, security services, Parliament and state-owned enterprises. The survey covers the capital area, rather than the entire country or resort workforce. 

Even with that geographical limit, the finding shows how heavily local employment in the capital already depends on the state. If resort work becomes less rewarding, government offices and state companies are likely to face more demand from people seeking an alternative. Other private businesses and overseas employers will remain options, but neither can be presumed to absorb everyone who turns away from tourism.

The Government has limited room to respond by expanding payrolls. Its 2026 budget projects a deficit of MVR 8.8 billion. In June, IMF staff warned that public debt and deficits were expected to remain elevated and identified state-owned enterprises as a significant source of fiscal and governance risk. Additional hiring would create continuing costs in an already constrained financial position. 

The danger is therefore a widening division of responsibility. Resorts could respond to weaker local recruitment by seeking more expatriate workers, while Maldivians increasingly look to the state for employment. That outcome is not inevitable. But it would weaken tourism’s role as a source of local careers and increase pressure on public finances, even if resorts continued to operate successfully.

There is a legitimate economic case for improving dollar availability through banks. IMF staff acknowledged in June that the Foreign Currency Act had helped ease foreign exchange liquidity pressures and build reserves, while stressing the need for broader economic adjustments. If workers can reliably obtain dollars at official rates, the disadvantage of receiving rufiyaa would diminish. Whether that access materialises is central to the employment argument. 

Protecting the appeal of resort work consequently requires action from both employers and the Government. Authorities should clarify salary and service charge obligations, investigate complaints and enforce applicable employment protections. Operators considering changes should consult staff and assess the effect on their overall compensation. Higher rufiyaa pay could offset some financial loss, although it would not by itself guarantee access to foreign currency.

Working conditions also deserve attention. More predictable leave, credible promotion opportunities and transport arrangements that allow staff to spend more time at home could strengthen recruitment. Employers and labour authorities should track changes in payment currency alongside applications, departures and vacancies, so an emerging problem can be identified before it becomes entrenched.

The Maldives needs its tourism industry to remain a place where citizens can build worthwhile careers. Preserving that role means taking seriously the financial bargain that draws people to resort work. If that bargain weakens, the demand for jobs will not disappear. More of it could arrive at the Government’s door, where there is already little room to accommodate it.