The Government of Zimbabwe has gazetted Statutory Instrument 81 of 2020 which pegged the minimum wage at an equivalent amount of US$100.
The development is likely to heighten tensions between the government and workers who have been calling for the increment of salaries to at least US$200.
The SI which sets the minimum wage threshold, however, does not include agriculture and domestic employees. It reads in part:
This comes when the latest Poverty Datum Line for a family of five currently stands above $5 000 according to official figures.
The government also recently gazetted a Statutory Instrument which allows citizens and businesses to use foreign currency for domestic transactions, a move that was viewed as re-dollarisation.
In response to SI 81, Peter Mutasa, the ZCTU president, said that the government made a unilateral decision as they had not found common ground.
