Namibia’s low-wage crisis: Thousands struggle to survive on less than N$5 000 a month

Hilaria Nujoma (33), a cleaner at a Windhoek-based company, earns N$1 300 per month.

She works eight hours per day from Monday to Friday and lives in a small shack in Katutura’s Okuryangava area.

The single mother of two says she cannot afford to leave her job.

“I work so hard to earn what I earn and I cannot quit my job, because that is how I sustain my children,” she says.

Nujoma says no one will understand the pain of watching her children go to bed hungry.

“Something has to be done and it needs to be done urgently,” she says.

Working for peanuts has left local security guard Lucas Ndeufa stressing about how to make ends meet every month.

“N$5 000 is better, because we have people who earn even less than that,” he says.

With his current wages, he cannot afford to buy his family bread every day.

“The government really needs to step in and consider paying people the money they deserve. Our greedy leaders only think of their families and themselves. That is so selfish of them,” he says.

Another security guard, who prefers to remain anonymous, earns a monthly salary of N$2 800, which she uses to take care of her two daughters.

“Whenever I get paid, I get more stressed, because the truth is that this money makes no difference to my life.

“The frustrating thing is that more than half of my salary goes into food, which does not even sustain us for the whole month,” she says.

She says living in Namibia is expensive.

“I use the remaining N$1 200 for my other essentials, like paying rent and taxi fare to get me to work, but I sometimes wake up as early as 05h00 to walk to work when I run out of taxi fare.”

STATISTICS

These individuals are part of the 302 210 employees in Namibia’s workforce who are paid less than N$5 000 monthly.

Less than 3% of employed people earn over N$40 000 a month, the latest labour statistics show.

It shows that 97 785 workers in Namibia earn a monthly gross salary of N$1 000 or less, while 88 348 get paid between N$1 001 and N$2 000.

The statistics show that 59 971 workers get a wage of N$2 001 and N$3 000.

Another 56 106 are paid a salary in the range of N$3 001 and N$5 000.

This amounts to 302 210 who earn less than N$5 000.

Labour analyst Herbert Jauch says the trend of poverty affecting the vast majority of those employed in Namibia has continued from 2018 to 2023.

“Earning less than N$2 000 per month is not enough for an individual to meet his/her basic needs. In most households this amount has to be shared among several people, as most households have only one main income earner,” he says.

Jauch says the few people who are employed, now less than half of the population in the working-age category, have to look after an increasing number of people who are unemployed and destitute.

“This explains the rapid rise in poverty between 2017 and 2023 from about 410 000 to around 850 000 people,” he says.

The analyst says the current unemployment and poverty rates in Namibia are a disaster that needs immediate and decisive intervention.

“The structure of the Namibian economy has not changed significantly. Despite higher levels of education, young people with tertiary qualifications struggle to find jobs, compared to previous generations,” he says.

In a statement issued last Friday (FNB) Namibia highlighted that 55.4% of employed Namibians earn less than N$5 000 per month, with only 2.6% earning over N$40 000, reflecting a significant income gap in the labour market.

“These figures suggest that a large proportion of the workforce is employed in low-wage jobs, perpetuating social risks in an elevated inflationary environment,” the statement read.

The bank says Namibia’s economy remains heavily dependent on agriculture at 16.1% and wholesale and retail trade at 10%.

“The manufacturing sector follows closely at 9.8%, while administrative support accounts for 9.3% of employment,” the statement noted.

FNB explains that these sectors are primarily composed of lower-skilled positions, which contribute to low pay and highlight the challenges of moving towards higher-value employment in the economy.

‘CAN’T AFFORD THE BASICS’

Public Service Union head Andreas Haufiku says most Namibians cannot afford basic necessities, because they are underpaid.

“Our problem is that we never want to show up and put pressure on our government so they can improve. This is a big disaster, everything is now high in price, including fuel,” he says.

Despite these frustrations, Haufiku commends the government for the newly introduced minimum wage and wishes this would continuously increase.

Social and political activist Michael Amushelelo says being employed but poor has been a reality for many Namibians over the years.

“This is partly due to the fact that most of our people continue to be exploited and oppressed, being paid slave-like wages.

“I’m very happy that due to the efforts of some of us who have been pushing for this Constitutional provision to be adhered to, the government has finally implemented a minimum wage of N$18 per hour.

“Although this won’t solve inequality, it is a step in the direction of ensuring that workers in our country earn a living wage,” he says.

Amushelelo says despite this improvement, many companies, instead of complying with the minimum wage, resort to retrenchments and lay-offs to reduce their workforce.

“It’s going to be very challenging for the current government to ensure that employers are complying with the minimum wage, seeing that over the years the government has struggled to implement minimum wage policies.

“So, simply put: Namibia can be characterised as having poor workers and that is why we will notice that the majority of the workforce opts to live in informal settlements, because when you are earning as little as N$5 000, how can you afford a decent place to live?”