How much do people earn in Cameroon? Incomes and wages
There is no single official âaverage salaryâ in Cameroon. Most workers are not wage earners, and the INS's major surveys mainly measure income from work. There are therefore several complementary benchmarks: incomes measured by the 2021 EESI 3 survey, the minimum wage set by decree, the pay scales of the collective agreements negotiated sector by sector, and World Bank indicators. This page presents them, always stating the year and what each figure measures.
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Workers' incomes according to the INS
The most robust income figures come from EESI 3 (2021), which surveyed 4,576 production units in the non-agricultural informal sector, where more than half of all workers are employed. A worker in this sector earned an average of 83,409 CFA a month, but half earned 40,000 CFA or less: the gap between mean and median shows that a few high incomes pull the average up. Ecomatin and the Ecofin agency reported these results when they were published.
| Category | Mean income | Median income |
|---|---|---|
| All | 83,409 | 40,000 |
| Douala | 119,852 | 79,200 |
| Yaoundé | 92,173 | 60,000 |
| Other towns | 85,839 | 41,250 |
| Rural areas | 59,520 | 23,900 |
| Men | 98,700 | 56,500 |
| Women | 69,600 | 28,300 |
| Employers | 181,200 | 145,000 |
| Own-account workers | 93,500 | 48,100 |
| Informal-sector employees | 53,300 | 40,000 |
| Upper secondary or higher education | 126,100 | 83,500 |
| Never attended school | 62,600 | 25,000 |
Men's median income (56,500 CFA) is double that of women (28,300 CFA), and 55.5% of women in the informal sector earned less than the minimum wage of the time, against 37.6% of men. Differences between activities are sharp: an average of 37,700 CFA in food processing, 112,600 CFA in transport and 118,400 CFA in wholesale trade. An hour's work brought in 669 CFA on average.
For employees in the public and formal private sectors, the EESI 3 summary documents publish working-condition indicators rather than incomes: 87.7% of government staff and 82.0% of formal private-sector employees have a payslip, against 24.3% in non-agricultural informal work and 1.6% in informal agriculture. Average pay for formal employees by sector does not appear in these summaries, and the main report of the employment survey is only published online as a scanned document that is hard to use.
The minimum wage (SMIG)
Decree No. 2023/00338/PM of 21 March 2023, signed by Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, set a differentiated minimum wage for the first time: 41,875 CFA a month for state employees covered by the Labour Code, 45,000 CFA for agriculture and related sectors, and 60,000 CFA for all other sectors. It repeals the decree of 24 July 2014, which had set the minimum wage at 36,270 CFA for everyone. Decree No. 2024/0168/PM of 23 February 2024 then raised the state employees' rate to 43,969 CFA (+5%), leaving the other two unchanged. The details (enforcement, checks, union debates) are covered on the page devoted to the minimum wage.
Collective agreement pay scales
In the formal private sector, basic pay depends on the job's category in the sector's collective agreement. These scales are renegotiated periodically between employers, unions and the Ministry of Labour; they are rarely published in full online, but the press reports their revisions.
| Sector | Revision | Effective |
|---|---|---|
| Banks and financial institutions | +5% across all categories; the lowest category rises from 68,174 to 71,582 CFA, senior managers from 710,160-831,911 to 745,668-873,506 CFA | 1 July 2022 |
| Commerce | +30% for categories 1 to 3, +11% for 4 and 5, +7.5% for 6 to 8, +4% for 9 to 12; transport allowance raised from 1,000 to 1,300 CFA per working day | 16 January 2024 |
In the civil service, pay follows index-based scales set by the state; these are covered on the pages on civil servants' and teachers' salaries. Payslips and their deductions (CNPS, taxes) have their own page.
Salary websites: handle with care
Private websites publish âaverage salariesâ by occupation based on anonymous self-reported data, without a representative sample or detailed methodology. Purely as an indication, in October 2026 Paylab showed a range of 98,886 to 321,803 CFA gross a month for 80% of its respondents, and a 17.7% gap in favour of men. These figures describe online, mostly urban and educated employees: they do not represent Cameroonians' incomes and should not be compared with INS data.
Income per head and cost of living
| Indicator | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GDP per head (current US$) | 1,720 | 1,830 | 1,972 |
| GNI per head, Atlas method (US$) | 1,680 | 1,690 | 1,860 |
| Consumer price inflation (%) | 7.4 | 4.5 | 3.4 |
| Wage earners among the employed (%, ILO model) | 30.2 | 30.4 | 30.7 |
Prices rose by more than 7% in 2023, eroding purchasing power despite that year's minimum wage increase. No official index comparing the cost of living in Douala, Yaoundé and the rest of the country could be found online; the INS publishes a national consumer price index and indices for the main cities.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average salary in Cameroon?
There is no single official average salary. According to the INS (EESI 3, 2021), a worker in the non-agricultural informal sector earned an average of 83,409 CFA a month, but half earned 40,000 CFA or less.
What is the minimum wage in Cameroon in 2026?
60,000 CFA a month in most sectors and 45,000 CFA in agriculture (decree of 21 March 2023), and 43,969 CFA for state employees covered by the Labour Code (decree of 23 February 2024, up from 41,875 CFA in 2023).
How much do people earn in Douala?
In the informal sector, an average of 119,852 CFA a month and a median of 79,200 CFA in 2021, against 92,173 and 60,000 CFA in Yaoundé (INS, EESI 3).
Do women earn less than men in Cameroon?
Yes: in the informal sector, women's median income (28,300 CFA) was half that of men (56,500 CFA) in 2021, according to the INS.
What is Cameroon's GDP per head?
About US$1,972 in 2025 according to the World Bank (US$1,830 in 2024).
What is the minimum salary in banks in Cameroon?
After the 5% increase of 1 July 2022, the lowest category in the banking agreement had a basic salary of 71,582 CFA, according to Ecomatin. Later increases have been announced but could not be verified.
Handle with care
EESI 3 incomes cover only the non-agricultural informal sector and date from 2021, before the 2022-2023 inflation and the new minimum wage; the report gives 83,409 CFA in its chapter on pay and 85,500 CFA in its 2010-2021 trend table, without explaining the difference. Incomes of public and formal private-sector employees are not published in usable form in the main report of the employment survey. A 6% rise in bank salaries in July 2024 and a new agreement signed in November 2024 are reported by secondary sources but could not be verified. Paylab's figures are based on anonymous self-reports and change as responses come in.