Labour analyst Austin Gamey has urged Ghana to overhaul its wage determination system by making workers’ earnings dependent on productivity rather than mere attendance at the workplace.
He believes a shift towards performance-based remuneration could help address concerns over low wages, improve job security and encourage businesses to create more employment opportunities.
Speaking to Citi News on Tuesday, November 10, Gamey argued that workers should be rewarded according to their individual contributions and the overall performance of the organisations they work for.
He maintained that Ghana’s existing labour laws already provide a basis for implementing productivity-based remuneration, but effective enforcement remains a major challenge.
Gamey also called on the proposed Independent Emoluments Commission to make productivity a central consideration in developing a new remuneration framework, particularly as the country seeks to ensure that workers earn living wages.
“Nobody in Ghana should ever be paid based upon appearance at the workplace. We must be paid based on the performance of the business and the performance of the individual. So productivity pay is what will give us what we have always been clamouring for, a living wage,” he said.
The labour analyst further challenged private sector employers to take the lead in adopting the proposed remuneration model, arguing that businesses stand to benefit from a system that links compensation to measurable performance.
According to him, productivity-based pay offers a more sustainable approach to rewarding employees while safeguarding existing jobs and creating opportunities for additional recruitment.
“The private sector is supposed to lead that crusade. This is the most civilised way of rewarding people and protecting their job security, and to ensure that we expand and employ more people,” he added.
His comments come amid ongoing discussions about wage determination, workers’ welfare and the role of the proposed Independent Emoluments Commission in shaping Ghana’s future remuneration structure.
