How much should domestic workers be earning per month? Who can and who can’t afford domestic help? Should a domestic worker’s salary depend on how much their employer earns? Does Zimbabwe have a minimum wage?
These, and more, questions were being tossed back and forth on X.
Popular X account,@drjaytee87, posted: ‘Is it fair to pay maids 70 usd the answer is no. But we need to be realistic. In gvt civil service all civil servants earn a salary of 240 usd zvisineyi nekuti uri (regardless you are a) doctor, nurse aide, teacher, clerk. Focusing on maids without paying attention to the main problem I think it’s misplaced. It’s politics that’s affecting us all. It was only tendai biti who paid us meaningful salaries’.
While others agreed with this take, others were having none of it; ‘If you’re paying them $70 you can’t afford them. Why are you trying to live above your means at someone’s expense?’.
Weighing in on the debate, another account posted; ‘If you can’t afford the cost of employing labour, don’t employ any. That is the law. However, you can solicit help from the extended family. Just stop being a pretentious bastard with poor folk’s lives’, following up with, ‘But you need to afford it fam. Hire a maid when you can afford to give them something close to the statutory minimum wage. Otherwise seek help from the extended family’.
Statutory minimum wage. Where?
Zimbabwe does not have a statutory minimum wage directly set by the government. However, the concept of minimum wage is still addressed within the legal framework. The Labour Act (Chapter 28:01) establishes a foundation for fair labour practices and employee rights, but doesn’t specify a national minimum wage.
In the absence of a national minimum wage, Zimbabwe utilises alternative mechanisms to determine wages:
- Collective Bargaining Agreements: Trade unions and employer organisations negotiate minimum wage rates for specific industries or sectors.
- Employment Councils: Tripartite bodies consisting of employee, employer, and government representatives establish minimum wages within their designated sectors.
Minimum wages are sector-specific and are negotiated between trade unions and employers or employer organisations. They can vary significantly depending on the industry, location, and type of work. The government also periodically sets minimum wages for certain sectors, to safeguard workers’ rights. Section 20 and Section 83 of the Act deal with minimum wage and collective bargaining, respectively.
Domestic workers Gazetted Wages
Domestic workers, since they are largely un-unionised (although there are moves to correct this), have their minimum wages periodically set by the government.
The last schedule was announced on 20 May 2022. It is yet to be updated. On this day, the Minister responsible gazetted the
Labour Relations (Domestic Workers) Employment (Amendment) Regulations, 2022 (No. 21).
A cook/housekeeper is Grade 2 employee while the highest paid is Grade 4 – Disabled/aged minder with Red Cross Certificate or equivalent.
Grade 2 employees earn a minimum of $10,500 while the highest paid domestic worker (Grade 4) earns $11,576.25.
This being gazetted on 20 May 2022, was in ZWL. On that day, the USD:ZWL exchange rate was 1: 258.44040. Effectively, at the gazetting of these regulations, the highest paid domestic worker with a Red Cross certificate had a minimum wage set at USD44.79.
Fast forward to 13 December 2022, exchange rate was 1:661.5605. The highest paid domestic worker was now on USD17.50.
In March 2024, just before the country made the switch to ZIG, the exchange rate on the 21st was 1:19,825.9982, making the minimum wage for the highest paid domestic worker USD0.58.
In 2024, the country switched to ZIG and to convert to the new currency the rate was pegged at ZIG1: ZWL2498.7242. The highest domestic worker is now at ZIG4.63. To convert this to USD, the rate was 13.56.
This means, as of today, the minimum wage for the highest paid domestic worker is USD0.34.
How are other sectors faring?
As indicated above, minimum wages are sector specific and set through the collective bargaining agreements.
In the Chemicals, Fertitilisers, Battery and Plastics Manufacturing Industries agreement, the lowest paid worker earns a gross of USD275.60 and the highest at Grade 10, USD896.24. Of these amounts, 40% is the USD component while the rest is local currency.
The Food and Allied Industries agreement sets the minimum wage at ZWL235,000 (USD6.99). This was a 31% increase from the previous agreement.
The Textile Manufacturing Industry also has an agreement in place. The lowest paid worker at Grade 1 earns USD184.00 while the highest at Grade 16 earns USD402.60. 45% of this is USD while 55% is local currency.
To put this in perspective, anyone earning a wage above USD100 gets charged Pay As You Earn starting from 20%.
Conclusion
Bringing in the element of ‘affording the cost of labour’ , ‘giving them something close to the statutory minimum wage’ or ‘trying to live above your means at someone’s expense’ would mean that anyone can pay the highest earning domestic worker USD0.34, which is the gazetted minimum. Legally, anyone who can pay this, can afford a domestic worker. However, the debate is not even around the gazetted minimum wage but the USD70 that most people are paying – way above the minimum.
To further frame this debate, the World Bank says 43% of Zimbabweans are in extreme poverty – living on less than USD1.90 a day. A domestic worker earning USD70, is on USD2.30 a day and out of the bracket of those living in extreme poverty.
