Minimum wage advisory board Chairman Mariyam Khaleedha has stated that when the decision of establishing a minimum wage was taken there was no fear of negative impacts that the COVID-19 will have on the world economy, thus now is not the right time to set a minimum wage.
In a recent panel discussion conducted with the public to get their opinion on the issue, Khalidha has said that they started the work of setting a minimum wage last year and by the end of the year they finished the work and submitted it to the Economic ministry.
She also highlighted that to set the minimum wage the board did discuss with the International Labor Authority (ILA) and after discussing with them they decide to set the minimum wage to MVR 6,400. Also, they did take the opinion and interest of employers and employees into consideration before deciding the rate.
The board also said that the most challenging part of this deciding the minimum wage to obtain the relevant data.
