The Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Labour, is working towards the increment of salaries for Liberian workers in the private sector to commensurate with the current cost of living. In a official release sent to this paper on Saturday, October 11, 2025, the Ministry of Labour said the minimum wage of workers in Liberia’s Private Sector, comprising thousands of our youthful population now stands at a staggered USD143.00 but will soon increase to commensurate with current living standards.
Equally, our investment conglomerates, contributing to our economy and labour growth must have a stake in any minimum wage adjustable dumbbells, so that they don’t introduce stringent austerity measures, including redundancy to layoff workers contrary to the”ARREST AGENDA’ program of President Boakai, aimed to create jobs,” the release stated.
Labour Minister Cllr. Cooper W. Kruah, Sr., made the revelation when he spoke at the official launch of ‘The Tripartite Stakeholders Roundtable Meeting on the discussion of the Revision of The Minimum Wage of Liberia for Private Sector and Autonomous Commissions.’ The one-day session held on Friday, October 10, at the Labour Ministry in Congo Town, was the 3rd in a series of nationwide broad-based consultations by the current Liberian Government under Labour Minister Kruah Sr., as Head of The Minimum Wage Board.
The release noted that the Minimum Wage Board, which comprises the ‘Tripartite Constituents: Employers Organizations, Workers Union and Government,’ is chaired by the Minister of Labour and had not convened a single meeting for over fifteen years under previous regimes, prior to the ascendancy of the current administration of President Joseph Nyumah Boakai and Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung.
Minister Kruah challenged delegates at the Roundtable to take into consideration all indicators of the current stark economic, social and general realities of the living standards of the Liberian people, mainly workers categorized into the ‘formal and informal sectors’. The Labour Minister is further quoted by the release as calling on the delegates to demonstrate the remorse in making the obvious upward adjustments in mitigating the current minimum wage bankruptcy affecting workers in the private sector across the country. “This decision must be considered, as well the strategic investment interests of our trusted partners so as not to compel them into instituting hard austerity measures with adverse effects on the very workers whose economic wellbeing our Government seeks to improve,” the Labour Minister stated.
In his overview of the exercise, Minimum Wage Board Head of Secretariat, Jerome Kollie, stressed that key resolutions emanating from the ongoing nationwide consultations on the revision of Liberia’s Minimum Wage is aimed at creating the legal framework for the possible upward adjustments of the current ‘take home pay of private sector workers,’ which no more addresses their current respective economic living realities’.
He called on delegates to build on a series of resolutions already derived from the previous Gbarnga, Bong County, and Kakata, Margibi County consultations, in making relevant recommendations aimed at reviving the current ‘Minimun Wage for private sector workers,’ consistent with Government’s desire to improve the economic stimulus of the citizens, balanced against investment conglomerates compressing employment against maximun desire for job by the citizens.
Earlier, key Minimum Wage Board Members, Cllr. Geegbae A. Geegbae, Cllr. C. Alexander B. Zoe, Veteran Female Trade Union Leader Madam Theresa T.Veskinda, and Charles Collins, among others, lauded Labour Minister Kruah for the initiative to work, review and revive the country’s stagnant minimum wage in a bid to benefit private sector workers in addressing current uprising living standards.
They outlined key basic indicators including housing, education, food, transportation and health, which must be considered in the ongoing Minimum Wage Revision Exercise to positively respond to current living realities of private sector workers, as in the West Africa Subregion and other parts of the world.
The Labour Ministry press release reveals that key points under debate by ‘Minimun Wage Revision Delegates’ are: whether to place separate caps to wages of people in various labour sectors, such as mining, agriculture and service. Final resolutions from the ongoing nationwide exercise will form the legal basis for the dramatic reform of Liberia’s Minimum Wage for thousands of private sector workers.
Meanwhile, Labour Minister Kruah is expected to resume his nationwide labour sector inspection across the South Eastern Regional counties of Grand Gedeh, Sinoe, Maryland, Grand Kru and River Gee. The tour was launched by the Minister just upon assumption to his office, when he released “The Liberians First On Job Placement” program”, as his primary program in support of the ‘AAID Platform’ of the Government.However, the Minister toured Margibi, Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu, Bomi and Nimba Counties where he gave strict compliance instructions to key investment conglomerates to transition and elevate Liberian workers to managerial positions with commensurate fringe benefits. He, however, delayed the Southeast tour for the pending dry season, citing unforeseen circumstances.
