The Moroccan government has signed a “social agreement” with the country’s main trade unions and employers.
The Moroccan government signed a “social agreement” on Saturday with the country’s main unions and employers around a key measure: an increase in the minimum wage in the private and public sectors.
The agreement provides for a 10% increase in the minimum wage over two years in the industry, commerce and services sectors. The minimum wage is currently set at 2,638 dirhams net (250 euros), excluding the agricultural sector, details a press release from the Prime Minister’s office.
In the public sector, the minimum wage will rise to 3,500 dirhams net (nearly 333 euros) whereas it is now 3,362 dirhams (nearly 320 euros).
The minimum wage had already been increased by 10% over two years in 2019.
The executive says it also wants to converge agricultural wages with those of other private sectors. It also undertakes to increase family allowances for the fourth, fifth and sixth children in the public and private sectors.
The agreement was sealed with the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) and three trade unions, the most representative, namely the Moroccan Labor Union (UMT), the Democratic Confederation of Labor (CDT), and the Union General of Workers of Morocco (UGTM).
The National Union of Labor in Morocco (UNTM) has not signed it.
This agreement comes in the context of soaring food and fuel prices, boosted by the war in Ukraine which increases the cost of this type of import.
The crisis is also exacerbated by a drought that is hitting Morocco hard, depending on its agriculture, the country’s leading economic sector (about 14% of GDP).
Faced with the crisis, several aids have been released, in particular for the benefit of the agricultural sector (nearly one billion euros) and road hauliers (200 million euros). The kingdom is expected to experience high inflation (+4.7%) and sluggish growth (+0.7%) in 2022, according to forecasts by the Moroccan Central Bank.
Consumer prices (+3.3% for January and February 2022 over one year) will continue to climb to “levels above the average of the last decade”, according to the High Commission for Planning (HCP).
