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The implementation of the second tranche of the National Minimum Wage and the Wages Regulations commences from today.

The new rate for the NMW will be $3.34 per hour while the minimum rate for the 10 sectors is provided in the gazette notice.

The Ministry is urging all employers covered under the NMW (Amendment) Regulations 2022 and the 10 sectoral industries (Building and Civil and Electrical Engineering Trades, Hotel and Catering Trades, Manufacturing Industry, Mining and Quarrying, Printing Trades, Sawmilling and Logging Industry, Security Services, Wholesale and Retail Trades, Garment Industry, Road Transport) covered under the Wages (Amendment) Regulations 2022 to make the necessary changes to their wages records.

The Employment Ministry’s Labour Standards and Compliance Team will continue to conduct inspections of the implementation of the second tranche.

This will be done to ensure all workers are remunerated with the right wage rate.

The first tranche came into effect on April 1st following the revised 2021-2022 national budget announcement on March 24th.

The third tranche of the NMW will be $3.67 which will commence on October 1st, and finally to $4 by January next year.

Fiji’s first-ever national minimum wage rate was introduced in 2014 for unskilled workers at $2 per hour. Since then, the rate has been raised twice.

It was first raised to $2.32 an hour in 2015 and went up to $2.68 an hour in 2017.