Gov’t Urged to Raise Minimum Wage by 20 Per Cent

In his invitation for next Friday’s Cotu celebrations, Atwoli urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to use the opportunity to give workers a 20 per cent pay increase.

According to Atwoli, President Kenyatta’s advisers are to blame for the delay in increasing workers’ salaries.

President Kenyatta promised workers a 14 per cent increase in minimum wage that would have seen the least paid worker take home Sh13, 674 every month.

He further asked the government to reduce workers’ contributions to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) so as to make healthcare affordable.

The Cotu secretary general condemned the move by NHIF to calculate insurance premiums from workers’ gross pay instead of their basic pay.

RECENT RESEARCH

According to research conducted by IPSOS Kenya between March 28th and April 7th this year, high cost of living remains the biggest problem facing Kenyans after corruption and unemployment, with only 51 per cent of Kenyans reporting any benefits accrued from the reduction in fuel prices.

The report shows that 44 per cent of households in Kenya earn less than Sh10,000 a month while 33 per cent earn between Sh10,000 and Sh25,000.

The research further shows that only 6 per cent of Kenyans earn more than Sh40,000 per month.

Next weekend, COTU will mark its 50th anniversary celebrations to be held at Uhuru Park, Nairobi. 

By Tom Omulo.