Below is the comparison :
2023 Base Pay Negotiations
Base Pay for 2023 was 30% with Inflation rates of 53.6% in January to 23.2% in December. This implies that, the Base Pay was extremely poor for Organized Labour.
Organized Labour proposed 60% increment in Base Pay for 2023 but Akufo-Addo’s government agreed to a 30% Base Pay for 2023, a reduction of 30%.
2024 Base Pay Negotiations
Base Pay for 2024 were 23%(January-June) and 25%(July – December) with Inflation rates of 23.5% in January to 23.8% in December. This implies that, the Base Pay was moderately okay but with poor trends of exchange rates coupled with haircuts.
Organized Labour proposed 75% increment in Base Pay for 2024 but Akufo-Addo’s government agreed to a 25% Base Pay for 2024, a reduction of 50%.
2025 Base Pay Negotiations
Base Pay for 2025 was 10% with Inflation rates of 23.5% in January and currently 8%. This implies that, the Base Pay for 2025 is very good for Organized Labour considering the fact that the exchange rate too has been very favorable to the market environments.
Organized Labour proposed 50% increment in Base Pay for 2025 but Mahama’s government agreed to a 10% Base Pay for 2025, a reduction of 40%.
2026 Base Pay Negotiations
9% Base Pay for 2026 with projected single digit inflation rates and stable exchange rate of $1 to 9-11ghc can still be considered as a good deal for Organized Labour.
Organized Labour proposed 15% increment in Base Pay for 2026 but Mahama’s government agreed to a 9% Base Pay for 2026, a reduction of 6%.
Conclusion
Based on the economic indicators and general market conditions, we can conclude that, the 10% Base Pay in 2025 is better than the 30% Base Pay in 2023, and the 9% Base Pay for 2026 is also better than the 25% Base Pay for 2024.
I would like to urge the Organized Labour to go for renegotiation before Mid-year Budget Review if Mahama’s government failed to maintain single digit inflation rates and stable exchange rates from January to June 2026.
This is an objective and non-partisan analysis.
Issued by: Razak Kojo Opoku(PhD)
