Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail said on Monday that as the minimum wage for big businesses have been set for MVR 8,000, it is projected that resort employees will receive MVR 12,000, when service charge is counted as well.
Referring to statistics from the industry, Fayyaz said resort workers get approximately MVR 5,000 to MVR 10,000 when 10 percent of the service charge the resorts earn is distributed amongst the workers. Therefore, once the minimum wage is added to the service charge, "each employee will get a minimum of MVR 12,000 per month," he said.
Minister Fayyaz Ismail signed the resolution setting the minimum wage in a ceremony held in Hotel Jen.
"With the minimum wage, around 13,000 of the 16,000 Maldivians employed in the tourism industry will see beneficial changes," Fayyaz said.
"With these changes, around 60 percent of the workers' salaries will double."
He said there was a huge gap between Maldivian employees in the tourism sector, depending on the region and the job designation.
"When we looked into the matter, the highest paid Maldivians receive around MVR 200,000 monthly. The lowest paid employees receive around MVR 1,000 or MVR 2,000 per month."
The minimum wage will benefit civil service workers as well, as the minimum set wage for this sector was MVR 7,000.
Minimum wage has been set for four categories; small businesses, medium businesses, big businesses, and civil service. The minimum wage set for these categories are MVR 4,500, MVR 7,000, MVR 8,000, and MVR 7,000 respectively.
Businesses are considered as "big" if they employee over 100 and generate an income of over MVR 20 million.
Foreign workers are not eligible to receive minimum wage.
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