Caretaker Labor Minister Moustapha Bayram during last week's Price Index Committee meeting. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — The minimum monthly wage for Lebanon’s private sector workers is set to be increased to LL9 million pending approval this week in a potential cabinet meeting, caretaker Labor Minister Moustapha Bayram announced last week.
Should Lebanon’s caretaker cabinet approve the measure, it would represent an LL4.5 million increase from the previously proposed minimum wage, which was never adopted by cabinet.
The announcement came after a March 30 meeting of the Price Index Committee, an advisory body that studies wages and costs of living in Lebanon.
The committee also recommended increasing the government-mandated transportation allowances to LL250,000 per working day. Employees still receive only LL95,000 per day, as decrees for an LL125,000-daily allowance that were announced in December were never formally approved.
If passed by cabinet, “these increases will take into account fluctuations in the exchange rate” on the parallel market, Bayram added after last week’s meeting.
Still, the new monthly wage is well below what it was worth before the economic crisis. At Monday’s parallel market exchange rate of LL100,000 to the dollar, the new wage will be worth just $90, and the daily transportation allowance – if implemented – just $2.50.
That’s compared to 2019, just before the crisis began, when the LL675,000 minimum wage was worth about $450 and the transportation allowance $5.
The public sector
These new measures, if passed, will still only apply to the private sector, according to Bayram.
However, they could be used to pressure improved salaries for civil servants, too, he added in last week’s announcement.
A source close to caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati told L’Orient-Le Jour that the premier plans to convene a cabinet meeting this week to focus on civil servants’ salaries. It was not yet clear if private sector salaries would also be up for discussion.
The move comes amid multiple strikes by employees across the public sector, including teachers.
“Every day that passes without work in the public sector being restored represents enormous losses and contributes to the deterioration of the situation,” caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil said in a statement last week.
This article was originally published in French in L’Orient-Le Jour.
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