Kenyans Real Average Earnings Declined By 2.9 Percent In 2017

By Rahab Mbiriti (Statistician)

Real average earnings declined by 2.9 percent to 30,750.35 shillings monthly in 2017 from 31,664.075 shillings in 2016, compared to an increase of 0.1 percent recorded in the previous year, according to the 2018 Economic Survey done by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

The drop in earnings could have been attributed to increases in inflation rates over the period. Inflation in 2017 reached highs of 7.99 percent compared to 6.3 percent in 2016. This means that Kenyans spent more from their earnings on basic commodities and services as compared to previous years.

In the public sector, real average earnings declined by 6.9 percent and fell by 1.1 percent in the private sector.

During the five-year period between 2012 and 2017, total wage employment rose by 23.2 percent with wage employment in the private sector rising by 25.0 percent, while that of the public sector went up by 19.3 percent.

In the private sector, the highest increase in wage employment was registered in education at 98.4 percent. This was followed by mining and quarrying; and construction activities with growths of 73.5 and 61.5 percent, respectively.

“Average earnings in the economy have risen by 54.3 percent over the five-year period (2012-2017) with public sector earnings rising by 43.3 percent compared to 59.8 percent for the private sector,” said KNBS in a statement. In the public sector, employees in the County Government recorded a large increase of 152.4 percent.

On Labour Day 2017, the Government announced new statutory minimum wage rates that reflected an 18.0 percent increase in the wages specified in both the regulation of wages Agriculture Order, 2017 and the Regulation of Wages (General) Order, 2017.

On average, the monthly basic minimum wages for the agriculture industry increased from 7,284 shillings in 2016 to 8,595 shillings in 2017. Unskilled employees, the lowest paid category of workers, had their monthly wages raised from 5,437 shillings in 2016 to 6,416 shillings in 2017. Monthly wages for the highest paid category of workers which include farm foremen and farm clerks was increased from 9,808 shillings in 2016 to 11,574 shillings in 2017.