Wage disparity in the Maldives

It appears that the discussion surrounding wages in the Maldives ends one of two ways: either someone is constantly getting overpaid for a job that they are not even qualified for or there is so much discrimination and someone is being underpaid for the hard work that they do.

This trend of wage disparity in the Maldives is not a new issue, however, it appears that it keeps worsening. As the country develops and the lifestyle gets more and more expensive with each passing year, it appears that the wages paid in the Maldives are still stuck in the past. This leaves people working two jobs as many are unable to afford to live in the Maldives - especially the capital city Male’ - from the low pay cheque from one job.

Minimum wage laws were non-existent in the Maldives until recently, and many were severely underpaid. The slight improvement in wages was brought about with the implementation of the minimum wage law that stated a minimum wage of MVR 7,000 per month for permanent employees of the public sector, however, the amount is still different when it came to the private sector jobs. While this was little consolation for many, to a few this increased their MVR 4,000 salary to a minimum of MVR 7,000 -  which is still not enough to get by in Male’.

However, when it comes to jobs, it appears that this is not the only issue present in the Maldives as there appears to be discrimination when wages are paid. It is no secret that Maldivian employers spend more on expatriate employees compared to locals. This is true, especially when it comes to paying allowances.

As Maldives is a country where a big majority of the people move to the capital city for jobs, as it ensures career advancement, one would expect living allowances and food allowances to be a basic aspect of any job offered in Male’. However, people are expected to pay for their rent, bills, food and other expenses from the small salary that they get paid.

With everything becoming more expensive each passing day, maybe it is finally a good time to question why people who do not have access to free or affordable housing are not offered a living allowance or a food allowance while foreigners who get hired in the Maldives have access to both these allowances in most cases.

This issue rose up in early August 2022 as one social media user posted screenshots of a job posting looking to hire doctors which showed that foreign hires get MVR 3,000 as living allowances and MVR 1,800 as food allowances on top of their salary,  while Maldivian hires are not paid either of these allowances, especially in this field.

While many job postings have been put out in order to replace foreign hires by Maldivians in an effort to create jobs for the locals, many started pointing out that such discriminations demotivate Maldivians to apply for work, especially in the critical fields such as doctors.