jordan pulse -
Social insurance expert Musa Al-Subaihi stressed the need to raise the minimum wage and its instability at 260 dinars.
A day after Labor Minister Nadia al-Rawabdeh confirmed the intention to reconsider the minimum wage next year, Al-Subaihi said that this would benefit more than 150,000 Jordanian workers who are still subscribed to the current minimum salary of 260 dinars, at a time when many more receive salaries below the minimum wage and are not covered by the guarantee, a large part of them in the informal sector.
He pointed out that raising the minimum wage is a legal entitlement under paragraph “b” of Article “52” of the Labor Law, especially since the government reversed the decision to raise the year 2022 and 2023 by the vote of the Tripartite Committee for Labor Affairs, without finding guarantees to raise the minimum and not to reverse it again next year.
Al-Subaihi added that raising the minimum wage is in line with the vision of economic modernization, which called for raising the income of the Jordanian citizen by 3% annually, stressing that this benefits the financial position of social security, raises the insurance revenues of the Insurance Corporation, and supports the investment activity of the guarantee funds, which benefits the national economy, enhances economic growth and opens more job opportunities for the citizen.
It will also benefit every Jordanian worker who is a contributor and is close to completing the conditions for entitlement to old-age and early retirement pension, as well as anyone who is in a situation of entitlement to any of the salaries and compensation for natural illness or arising from work injury, which benefits depend on the amount of wage subject to security deductions.
This injects more money into the economy by increasing the spending of minimum wage workers and their families on basics, he said, raising their level of consumer spending, benefiting the seller, manufacturer and farmer.
He pointed out that the repeated royal directives to governments to improve the living of citizens and raise the minimum wage is a pillar for this, even if to the lowest possible degree, which pushes the need to raise the minimum, in order to motivate Jordanian workers to move from work in the informal sectors to the organized sectors in order to enjoy the protection and rights stipulated in legislation, including the minimum wage, to reduce poverty and reduce its prevalence among Jordanians, and stimulate work, which is called for in the national strategy for social protection for the years. 2019-2025 through the empowerment axis and the axis of providing decent job opportunities for Jordanians.