Maldives has declared and announced minimum wages for the first time.

Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail signed the declaration on the minimum wage in a ceremony held at Hotel Jen today.

Minimum wage has been declared for four categories of businesses, as per the advice of the Minimum Wage Advisory Board. This includes; Civil Service, Small Businesses, Medium Businesses and Large Businesses.

Minimum Wage Board’s recommendations to the Minister noted MVR 24.04 hourly rate for small businesses for a monthly total of MVR 5,000, MVR 33.65 hourly rate for medium businesses for a monthly total of MVR 7,000 monthly wage as well as MVR 42.79 for a monthly total of MVR 8,900.

For the public sector, the board suggested an MVR 33.65 hourly rate for a monthly total of MVR 7,000 for employees who work for 6 hours a day.

Changes were made to the minimum wages for Small Businesses and Large Businesses when they were announced by the Minister today.

As such the amount for small businesses were reduced to MVR 21.63 hourly rate for a total of MVR 4,500 monthly wage and for large businesses the amount was reduced to MVR 38.46 hourly rate for a total of MVR 8,000 monthly wage.

No adjustments were made to minimum wage for medium businesses – which the public sector fall into.