Salafist Nour Party Wants to Raise Egypt's Minimum Wage

Egypt’s Salafist Nour Party submitted a draft law on wages to the upper house of parliament, the Shura Council, through party members Salah Abdel Mabood and Ahmed Youssef on Monday. The Shura Council will open the discussion over the draft law on Wednesday, Al-Ahram's Arabic-language website reported. Under the terms of the draft legislation, the minimum wage would reach LE1200 ($178) per month and it would cover workers in the public and private sectors, whether permanent or temporary. According to the draft law, the Egyptian supreme council of wages will be assigned to revise the wage caps every three years.

The maximum wage should not exceed 35 times the minimum wage and violations will face legal punishment. Since the January uprising in 2011, successive interim governments have promised to impose wage caps to meet one of the key demands of the revolution, social justice. In June 2011, Egypt's then transitional government granted public servants a monthly minimum wage of LE700 ($120). The minimum wage was supposed to come into effect at the start of July, the beginning of the 2011-2012 financial year, but in reality was only implemented for government employees on permanent contracts.