Morocco’s Minimum Wage Remains High Compared to Average Salary, Central Bank Study Finds

"In Morocco, the decisions to raise the SMIG (guaranteed minimum interprofessional wage) and the SMAG (guaranteed minimum agricultural wage) which serve as minimum wages in the non-agricultural and agricultural sectors respectively do not follow a pre-established schedule but result from exchanges between the various stakeholders within the framework of social dialogue," the BAM document states.

According to the same source, in 2019, the SMIG and the SMAG were respectively around 2,698 DH and 1,903 DH per month, i.e. an hourly wage of 14.13 DH and 9.15 DH. Moreover, since their introduction, the two wages have been revalued at the same time and at the same rate. "Between 1999 and 2019, they were revalued ten times from an initial level of 1,659 DH for the SMIG and 1,075 DH for the SMAG per month," it recalls.

"The level of the SMIG on the overall wage can be described as high (...). Correcting for the wage in the non-agricultural sectors, the importance of the minimum wage in Morocco remains a striking fact (about 43% of the non-agricultural average wage according to HCP data in 2015 and 59% of the average wage according to CNSS data in 2014) which may indicate positive effects on wages but nevertheless negative effects on employment," conclude the BAM researchers.