Secretary roots for abolition of minimum wage

By MARGARET KANINI

Abolishing minimum wage could be the solution to unemployment in the country, a Cabinet Secretary has said.

Industrialisation and Enterprise Development Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohammed said over a million Kenyans join the job market yearly while the country can only absorb half the number, leaving over 500,000 Kenyans unemployed.

“It is estimated that by the year 2030, eight to ten million Kenyans will be jobless. Scrapping out minimum wage, he said, will help combat this crisis. “There are employers who are willing to pay an amount lower than the set minimum wage but cannot do it because it is against the law,” Adan on Thursday during the Federation of Kenyans Employers AGM in Nairobi.

He  said employers should consider paying employees according to their productivity levels or the hours spent at work. “The systems employers are using to reward labour create an environment for mediocrity and people do not stretch to do what they are capable of doing,” Adan said, in reference to equal salary payment system that most employers in Kenya are using.