Minimum wage to go up by April-end |01 April 2016

Workers on minimum wage will be taking home R1,000 more starting end of this month.

This follows the increase in minimum salary for a 35-hour week, from R4,050 to R5,050 monthly.

President James Michel announced the increase in the minimum wage in his State of the nation address in February.

Mr Michel said the increase in minimum wage is one of the measures his government is taking to address the disparity in the standard of living which exists in our society.

“My government will continue to do even more. Because we’ve always had the interest of all Seychellois at heart. And it is never our intention to leave anyone behind,” said President Michel as he introduced a series of measures which, he said, will contribute to even greater improvement in the standard of living of a significant number of Seychellois families.

The new minimum wage rates are as follows:

For workers on continuous employment, the rate has increased from R26.70 per hour to R33.30 per hour, and for casual workers it has increased from R30.78 per hour to R38.38 per hour.

The Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development is calling on employers to comply with the new rate of R33.30 (continuous employment) and R38.38 (casual employment) respectively per hour for salary that is due as of April 2016. 

The onus is on the workers to ensure that their salary as from end of April 2016 is according to the new rates.

To calculate their salary to see if it is according to the minimum wage, workers have to take the number of hours worked per week and multiply it by the minimum wage rate per hour, multiply by 52 (weeks in a year) and divide by 12 (months in a year).

For example:  If you work 40 hours per week and you are in continuous employment, the calculations will be: 40 hours x R33.30 x 52 /12 = your salary should not be lower than R5,772.00 as from April 2016.

If you work 40 hours per week and you are working casual (should not be more than 3 months with the same employer), the calculations will be: 40 hours x R38.38 x 52 /12 = your salary should not be lower than R6,652.53 as from April 2016.

Employers are also reminded that they should not deduct Income Tax on a salary of R5,050.00 or lower.  

Employers who pay a salary that is lower than the minimum wage or deduct tax on a salary when it should not is committing an offence and may face prosecution.