The Trades Union Congress has welcomed the increase in the national daily minimum wage. The new wage is now 3 cedis 73 pesewas up from 3 cedis 11 pesewas. The 20 percent increase announced yesterday followed negotiations by the Tripartite Committee comprising organized labour, employers and government. The new wage takes effect from today. TUC Secretary General Kofi Asamoah explained to Joy Business much as they would have wanted more, they had to compromise at some point. He said the decision was taken in the interest of workers and industry. The Chief Executive of the Ghana Employers Association, Alex Frimpong explained the ability to pay was the overriding factor. “Currently business is saddled with a lot of difficulties – we have constantly complained about high cost of capital in this country – we are also saddled with the issue of influx of counterfeit goods and illicit trade, we also saddled with the issues of low productivity, so we had to settle at a figure which would not really add to the woes of business,” he stated. He emphasized that the minimum wage is only a baseline figure, “it is not the figure that employers are paying as of now.” Source: Joy News/Ghana